Zero escape Last hope
by shinfan
Summary: Sequel to the second installment (so this would be the third) to the Zero escape series after 999 and Virtues last reward. Can Sigma stop the events from repeating themselves again and again? (I didn't know the third installment would be madee when I started this, so I might change the game this is related to when it gets out.)
1. Chapter 1

ZERO ESCAPE: Last hope

 _Author's note: Before this gets confusing (and it most probably will, mainly due to it's complicated plot theme), I must say the zero escape games and their characters belong to their creators (do we really need to say this in a site called ? anyways...) Since each chapter will be a repetition of the game from making a different choice, the chapter would be equal until the choice is changed, so for that identical part in the following chapters I'll be making a summary. This is the first chapter so here you won't have to worry about it. Also, this story was written before it was stated there would be a third installment of the series, so there will be inconsistencies with the plot, plus I wont be using Kyle or Luna's model. In here you can consider her the Delta character, even if I won't be using her for the 6 million announcement thingy. Anyway, enjoy!_

 _Edited with the help of a beta reader_

* * *

I was having a weird nightmare.

An Egyptian queen with pink hair was pursuing me holding a cleaver. As soon as I dodged her, a lion with 2 heads joined her and started launching bombs from his opened jaws at me. Suddenly I realized I was wearing a woman's swimsuit.

And then I woke up. With my head still dizzy, I looked around. Just one glance was enough to realize that, whatever horrible nightmare I was having, it would have been better if I hadn't woken up.

My name is Sigma. I'm your average college student, trying to get my Ph degree. One Christmas day, I was coming back from college when white smoke filled my car. I guess that's when I was abducted because I don't remember anything. It felt as if several days had passed but I couldn't remember anything from then. Maybe my nightmare had something to do with it. I couldn't tell. I got up still dizzy, my head killing me and by body really light. It felt as if I was high or something. Not that I'd know anything about that.

Really.

Anyway. Looking around confirmed my suspicion. I was locked up in a cell-like room. There was a small desk with a couple drawers and a chair, a bed with no sheets and a little place where… Was I supposed to do toilet functions? There was also a sink with a mirror, which suddenly gave me the chills and I stepped away from it. I couldn't tell why.

I stumped with the wall on my back and glancing at it, I looked through the small round window. I could see the outside. It was desert like, but with a red tint to it. Maybe it was due to the sunset. I looked a bit more through it while I played with my fingers on the surface of the glass. Moving my hands or fingers at random had always helped me to ease my nervousness. But that time it didn't help much.

Avoiding eye contact with the shadow in the mirror, I got close to the door. It looked like solid steel with no handle. I pushed and slammed my fists into it, but it was no use. However, I did notice something odd. Both my forearms were half covered starting from the wrist by a weird looking metal device. Closer to the left wrist, it ended in a watch-like machine, whose dial was off. In both sides, it had carved the Greek letter S. A Sigma, how appropriate. I turned my arm and checked it all. There was no opening. I tried forcing it open, but I had as much luck with that than with the door.

"Just what the hell is going on…" I laid my forehead on the metal door, trying to ease a growing headache, and cursed, asking for an explanation.

As if I got heard, the speaker next to the door that I haven't noticed till then gave me a startle. It was a digitalized voice. I couldn't even tell if it was a guy or a girl.

"Welcome to mars station nr 9, prisoner Sigma. Be noticed that, for your crimes, you've been sentence to attend the ultimate survival game. Be honored and thankful, since that attendance is the only thing delaying and maybe cancelling your death. Still, only the wise will be worthy and in 9 minutes, you will not."

"The hell?"

I stared at the speaker for some seconds until I heard a little beeping sound in my left wrist. The Dial was on and showed a countdown. 8:59, 8:58,… and so on. I stared at it for a while, but that only worsened my headache. I recall what the robotic voice had said. Survival. Death. 9 minutes.

I had no idea of what was going on, but I had the feeling I had to get out in order to know and since a countdown never meant anything good, I guessed I only had 9 minutes to do it.

Well, now 8.

7:59

7:58

Stop looking the damn device and think! How do I get out of here?

I looked at the speaker at the right side of the door. Below it there was a grey (like everything in the cell) metallic box with a slot that looked like the ones used in buses time ago, before the electronic public transport cards expire all the transport carton cards. I guessed a card was needed to open the door. I looked across the room. Maybe the card was hidden somewhere.

I checked the time. 6 minutes and a half left. Crap!

I went directly to the drawers at the desk. I sat on the chair to get a better access and inspect on it whatever I might find within the drawers. The first drawer was stuck. No matter how much I tried, so I gave up on it and tried the second. There was a folder with a paper in it. I gave a quick look but there was no card in it. While I did that, my legs gave a weird sound under the desk. It seemed my knee was rubbing onto something odd behind the desk. I looked it up and saw a little card pasted with duck tape. I quickly got and went towards the lock.

"Fuck!"

The slot was too big for it. Whatever that card was for, it wasn't for this. So I just put it in my pocket. On the third and last drawer I found a tech device the size of a book. The screen was off. I tried tapping it with my fingers, but it looked not powered. With a grunt I sat again on the chair. Then the speakers surprised me again.

"5 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."

"Oh fuck!"

I got up with a jump and rechecked the desk; there was nothing else on it. I looked at the toilet thingy, but there was nothing there either. I quickly looked at the bed and as fast as I could check the pillow and mattress, there was nothing.

"4 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."

"I'm trying, damn it!"

I went back to the desk and took the device again. I turned it and saw a little slot, then remembered the tiny card in my pocket and rushed to put it. It seemed to take me ages, even if it were just mere seconds. The sweaty hands didn't help much either.

The screen lightened. It asked for a 4-letter password. The tactile screen had a keypad, but surprisingly, there were Greek letters.

"Great, that helps a lot!" I grunted. I desperately attacked the screen with my fingers trying combinations of letters, but it was no use. I needed a code, a key or something that could help figuring what should I input. Then I saw the folder. I read the paper. Surprisingly, there was only one thing written on it.

Hell

"Could it be?" I imputed the word in the tablet, but it didn't work. Then I realized the H in Greek wasn't really an H. That word couldn't be the password.

"3 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."

I panicked. I didn't know what the message meant. I pulled my messy black hair with both hands and stomped my forehead into the desk in frustration. I stayed like that a full minute. I know because…

"2 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate room."

… that.

That was it. I was going to die.

"Raaaaaargh!" I yelled as hard as I could and suddenly, my headache intensified and an image flashed in my head. It was the round window. I had no idea what that was or meant, but I run towards it and pasted my face on it, trying to look for a signal outside, breathing heavily against the glass. I saw the landscape and then I recalled the first audio message.

"No way I'm in mars… Right?"

"1 minute till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."

My hopes shattered. The only hope I had found was of no use. I closed my eyes and laid my forehead against the glass. The cold helped with the headache, but not with the mortal situation. I exhaled slowly, opened my eyes and gave a step back. Then I saw that my breath had made the glass foggy in an area. I blinked.

There was something else.

The foggy area receded until it disappeared, so I exhaled again and I could see it good. It was a Sigma letter that someone had drawn on the glass. Then I realized I had done that with my fingers at the beginning.

And then I knew.

I got the tablet and inputted the letters, Alpha, Delta, Epsilon, Sigma. The screen flashed with a green light.

Of course, ADES. Hades was the Greek hell. It was so obvious I could punch myself. But I had no time for that. In fact, the dial showed a number lower than 10. Furtunately, the device opened like a chocolate box and inside was the card I needed. Or so I hoped.

I dashed towards the door

"5 seconds till cyanide gas exposure. 4... 3…"

I inserted the card, it gave a beeping sound and the door opened. I got out, ending on my knees on the floor. The door closed behind me. I breathed with difficulty while I was kneeling. Then I heard someone clapping his hands in front of me. I looked up and saw some people staring back at me. The one clapping his hands looked amused at me, then he gave some steps towards me and offered his hand.

"About time you got out, man. I almost thought we would end up being just us 8."

Looking at the rest, I counted them. Including him, they were 8. I guess that made 9 people if you counted me, of course. I looked at his hand, not very sure of his real intentions, but it was clear he was in a similar situation, judging for the metal covering his thick forearms. I took his hand and I didn't even need to make an effort to get up. He just flexed his huge biceps and lifted me off the ground as if I weighed nothing. And last time I checked, I weighed about 200 pounds.

However, the man holding my hand was huge. Probably as tall as me but outweighed me by at least 50 pounds. And he was no shy about it. He was wearing a white tank top that fitted his torso like a second skin and some baggy black pants that ended in military green boots. He had clear blue eyes and dark long hair tied in a ponytail at the base of his neck, with some uncombed bangs of hair falling over his face. My eyes went back to his buff arms and then I noticed the symbol on his armband bracelet (lets call it bracelet for short) was an U upside down with the edges turned outwards. An Omega.

I saw him checking his bracelet dial, smirking, "Seems like you'll be the last to join us."

I checked my dial too and saw the countdown was in 0 and then it was off again. Then I looked behind me. I had gotten out from a door that was on the same wall where other 20 doors were. I could guess the rest of the people gathered in front of me had done the very same. Then I noticed. 20 doors and only 9 people outside. Did that mean that 11 people were…?

No way… "What the hell is this? Why are we here?" Nobody replied, "And where is here?"

Again no reply. I was going to press it when a woman with glasses and a labcoat shrugged, showing me both palms, as if saying it couldn't be helped. I saw a triangle on the side of her bracelets. A Delta letter.

"We're the same, we don't know more than you do," she explained.

A short white haired girl dressed in a short skirt and a long coat with no sleeves glared at me. The light reflex shined on her bracelet where I saw a curved line carved. A Phi letter

"Just shut up already! Geez, you piss me off," she spouted at me.

"Hey, what the hell!"

The doctor-looking woman coughed, "Please calm down. I'm sure we'll soon be informed of our situation. There is no need for hostility."

The glasses woman tried to calm down the situation but we all ignored her efforts, except someone wearing a leather motorist suit. He or she (I'll go with a He, due to lack of curves) was still wearing the moto helmet on.

We couldn't tell if he was looking at her but his voice sounded directed to her earlier comment, "Don't bother. Do you think we can be calmed with just that? Have you realized our situation?"

The helmet muffled a bit his voice, but I could tell he wasn't too old. He might even be my age. His bracelet had a straight-line symbol, an Iota letter.

A tall and thin old woman wearing a very elaborated flashy pink hair, lots of makeup, sunglasses and really wide long skirt used her cane to stomp the floor and make us all look at her.

"This is absolutely intolerable! I've never been made to wait in my entire life. I demand an explanation right now!" She barked. Her nose and mouth wrinkled as if she smelled something bad.

"Come on, obasan. If you stress too much, your heart will suffer. That's not good at your age!" a little girl told her while she grinned.

Wait, a kid here too?

"O-obasan? Inpudence! How dare you, little punk…" she trembled in rage, the hands showed next to the metallic bracelets white from grabbing her cane with all the strength she had. Those bracelets showed a circle with a line inside. The Theta letter.

The kid started laughing but both the laughter and the old woman's rage were halteded by a bald man in his thirties, hitting the kid on top of her head.

"Don't be rude to your elders!" he admonished her

"Ouch… big brother… that's mean!" she complained. Rubbing her black hair combed in 2 long braids. She was wearing a Chullo hat, those Peruan's knitted hats that had earflaps and whose long 2 laces matched the length of her braids. She wore also blue overalls and a red t-shirt. She couldn't be more than 10 years old and her bracelets looked huge on her, covering all her forearms, but still not loose enough to take it off sliding her hands. They had an M on them. A Mu letter.

The bald man giving her a speech about being polite and referred by her as her big brother wore a perfectly tailored suit and I just noticed that even when he hit her, his serious face expression didn't change, like a robot. What a creep.

The bracelets are shown under the suit only showed the letter for a moment, when he hit her. It was a B. The Beta letter.

A sad looking blond man was the only one not having spoken a word. Maybe that's what made me notice him, how ironic. He looked lost in thoughts and was staring at the floor with no interest whatsoever. He was wearing a black hoodie with sleeves rolled so his bracelets weren't bothering him. They had a triangle on them, but with the base not completed. A Lambda letter.

I was trapped with this bunch of weirdoes. I glanced around. It was a big room in a thick T-like shape. On my back were the rows of doors. In front of me there were 2 big doors with a different carving on each one. There were no windows to be seen.

Suddenly, everyone's attentions were grabbed by the electronic voice I had heard before in the room. Good, maybe now I'd get some answers.

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the ultimate survival game. The nonary game!"

Before I could wonder why that game's name seemed to run a bit of chill down my spine, I heard a yelping sound from the woman in the long dress. The makeup didn't hide the fact she was scared. She knew something.

But I couldn't question her since the voice didn't wait.

"You can refer to me as Zero the second, or simply Zero, the gamemaster of the nonary game. The reason you're here is simple. Punishment for your horrible crimes."

That made most of us to shout back at the voice, but it ignored us.

"Don't try to deny your guilt. However, you've got a chance to escape with your life. Right now, you're inside of a locked compound that has only one exit. That exit connects with the ship that can bring you home. You must search for that exit. That won't be enough, though. You'll need the blessings of the gods so you get out in one piece. Without enough blessings, your bracelets won't get off and will explode if you try getting out with them on or remove by force or damage. A wrong door will have the same effect. However, that doesn't mean you can take your time. All the air inside the compound will be gone in exactly 9 hours. I'll be eagerly waiting to know who survives…"

We all started talking at the same time. Most of us with indignity, especially the old woman. We were confused and with a reason. What crimes? What game?

"This is stupid, I'm not playing by that zerojerk's rules."

"This is unacceptable! I demand to be released immediately!"

"Will be true that these things have bombs?"

The big guy approached the white-haired girl, "Hey you."

"I have a name, you know?"

"Which is…?"

"I'm not telling my name a suspicious guy I just met."

"Whatever."

"We should introduce ourselves. It's difficult to talk if we don't know our names," the glasses woman said to us. I pondered if that was a safe thing to do.

The white haired girl objected to that, "If one of us is Zero, we would be giving him too much information about us."

"Oh, man! Will you stop acting so paranoid already, Phi?" I couldn't help snapping at her. I mean, why was she so hostile with people she just met?

She opened her eyes wide, "How did you…?"

But the hulk patted my back, "Good idea dude! We can call each other by the Greek letter in our metallic stuff… Whatever they are called."

"Bracelets?" I suggested.

"Ok, that. I'll be Omega then and by that, I mean to be your END if you get on my bad side, you hear me, baldy?" he poked the suit guy on his chest. I hadn't even realized till now that they had been having an argument earlier.

Great, he's the violent type. Sigh... I revised the bracelet's symbols again until I had memorized them. One thing I've always been proud of was my memory. And it surely helped in exams.

I looked at Phi. For some reason, it felt as if I had known her before, but at the same time, I was sure I hadn't met her before I was abducted. When I called her name before, I mean, what we were being called now, it felt too natural. Was it possible for her real name to be Phi, same as I was Sigma? And how the hell did I know that at that time?

It made as much sense as the feeling that I was having of forgetting something important. I hated feelings like that and they irritated me to no end.

"So? What is this about?" I asked, "A survival game?"

"Do-don't ask me! How should I know?" replied Lambda. It was the first time I heard him talk. He sure was a nervous guy.

"Blessing of the gods? Interesting! I'll kick their blessing out of them!" threatened Omega with a sneer.

"How can you take it so slightly? This is too dangerous!" Delta looked about to cry but her glasses reflected the light somehow and hide her expression. Then she glanced towards the dial on her bracelet.

"Everyone! Look at your dial!"

I did as she said. The dial was on and showed several things. I stared at it and my vision became a bit blurry, like dozing off a bit. My headache worsened for a bit and I felt more like floating than ever.

* * *

I rubbed my eyelids until a little hand grabbed my shirt and pulled a bit. It was Mu. She smiled at me and I smiled back.

"Have you chosen already, Mr. Sigma?" she asked

"Chosen what?"

"On your dial you have to select a door, see?" she showed me her dial. It showed a greek symbol, Eta. I looked at the rest. All of them were looking at me, waiting. When had they decided to go along with this? Even the old lady had stopped complaining. Checking my bracelet dial, there were 2 symbols rotating, an eta and an epsilon. The dial had no buttons so I rubbed the screen to see if it worked and it appeared it did. The symbol stopped at the Epsilon. On top of it, I could see a timer 8:52:45 doing the general countdown.

"So…. What about the symbol we chose?"

"Isn't it obvious?" replied the old lady, "It's the choice of the door. That-" she used the cane to pint at the left door, "represents a drawing of the god Hermes, I suppose you can notice the wings and the caduceus. And that other one is the god of strength, Heracles," she pointed to the other one.

"Don't be a smartass now, you had to touch the engravings to notice that," complained the shy Lambda, although he didn't dare to make eye contact with her while saying so, and he even jumped a bit when she stomped her cane on the ground. I could almost hear a snarl from her.

"Let me tell you, young man, that my eyesight is not what it used to be, if it wasn't for my sunglasses, I couldn't even open my eyes!"

"Why is that so?" I asked, but she just shook her head, not willing to say anything else.

"So the ones with Eta (H) will be going through the Heracles door and the ones with an Epsilon through the Hermes door," stated Beta, stern as always.

"Aw, big brother, you have the door wrong!" complaint Mu, after checking Beta's bracelet.

"I see. Then behave till we get together again. You know what you have to do."

"Of course!" she smiled, and without waiting, got close to the right door. The door opened and she entered. The door closed behind her.

"Hey! Wait for the rest! Don't go alone!" I shouted running after her, but the door didn't open for me.

"Who else have the Eta?" asked Beta aloud.

Nobody replied, but Lambda, with his head down, approached the door and it opened for him. It hadn't closed yet when I walked after him. Then a hand grabbed my arm, stopping me before I could enter. It was Phi.

I looked at her with surprise.

"Do you really have an Eta?" she asked

I rechecked the dial. No, I didn't.

She checked it too and sighed, shaking her head, "You idiot. You're gonna lose an arm acting like that."

Then I remembered what Zero had said about entering a door that wasn't for us. I made a face and thanked her, but she just ignored me and went to the other door. It opened for her as well as for the rest of us. I was the last one entering and I gave one last glance to the other door, hoping Mu would be all right just with antisocial Lambda. A little kid enduring such a game…

After the door closed behind me, I could watch the room we were into. It looked very modern, almost futuristic. On one side there were lots of screens and dials and another door. At the other side, there were some lockers and a bench. In front was another door that had a locking device next to it. I assumed that was the exit. The device didn't have any slide holes for any card, just a little screen that had "locked" on it in red.

Theta was resting on the bench, although I guessed it couldn't be helped due to her age. On the other hand, Iota could. Instead, he was leaning on the wall. With his helmet on, I couldn't know where was he looking at, or even if he has his eyes opened at all, maybe the lazy bastard was taking a nap.

Well, I wasn't helping either, so I went towards the dial table where Beta and Delta were looking for hints. There was also a screen with a keypad below it but it wasn't on. Both looked busy so I didn't want to interrupt them. I decided to go to the next room over. After I closed the door behind me I became speechless. The wall in front of me was made of glass, and a very thick one I should add. It showed the outside. It looked like a red desert at night. There were no clouds in the sky and all the stars could be seen. I had to admit it really looked like Mars, but… that wasn't possible, right?

Phi was staring at a couple screens on the left side. They had keypads with them, but the screens were off. She was checking plugs and cables but she didn't found them. Maybe they were engaged from the wall or maybe they used batteries. On the right, Omega was staring at a console with several switches aligned in a grid of 3x3. Maybe switching them would help with the screens. I got closer to Omega and when I was about to tell him that, he started trying it on his own. But glancing towards Phi, I could tell he wasn't lucky. There was probably a hint or a user's manual around. If only I could find it…

Defeated, I went back to the first room and walked towards the bench next to the exit. I suppose I shouldn't call it just a bench since it looked more like a sofa. I left myself fall on it, and to my surprise, the fall seemed slower than I thought. I felt tired but I wasn't sure that was the reason. Mars (yeah, as if that could be true) has less gravity. Seeing things slower wouldn't be weird there. Right?

A sound coming from Theta distracted me from my thoughts. A grunt. The impact on the sofa by my butt made the other end where Theta was seated, to bounce. Although she was bothered enough to grunt, she didn't say anything else. I looked up towards the ceiling and closed my eyes for a second.

Or maybe more than a second. I might have dozed off for a while, cause some shouting startled me. Phi was talking with Iota quite loudly. I didn't pay much attention and didn't want to get involved in a fight, so I leaned in the sofa, trying to pass unchecked, sliding down and moving some cushions. A little sound brought my attention to my left side, where a cushion had moved. There was a little piece of paper. Looking at it, I saw a Sudoku puzzle almost done. There was only one number left in all the 9 main squares (meaning there were 9 numbers left to finish it), so it was as good as done.

A bit disappointing, really. I hoped that could alleviate boredom at the very least. Then, something felt different. As if it was important somehow. I couldn't tell why, but I got really excited. Also irritated since it seemed I became hyper for no reason.

"You, come with me!" I turned my head towards Phi, who seemed to have finished with Iota. She was glaring at me.

"What?"

"Come with me!" she insisted, grabbing me by the short sleeve and pulling me up from the sofa.

"Hey! What's your deal?" I complained while she guided me towards the second room, "And I have a name, you know?"

"I know… Sigma… your name is Sigma, right? I mean your real name."

Wait… "How the hell do you know that? Are you an esper?"

She frowned. "What's an esper?"

"…" I lifted a brow, but she was looking at me curious. I shrugged, "Nevermind. What do you need me for?" I gently pushed her hand off my arm.

"I need you to connect these switches," she pointed to the side where the grid of switches were.

"Me? Why me?"

"I don't know why, ok? I just know you can make them work."

"You just know… Same as with my name?" my eyes narrowed as I examined her confused face.

"Well…"

"Heh, that's not suspicious at all. Besides, Omega already tried them and they didn't work."

"That I did," he said from a spot on the wall next to the door, where he was leaning on. Both Phi and I jumped when he made us notice his presence in the room.

"Hey! Since when were you here?" I asked him

"I never left the room. But hey, don't mind me. It's more interesting watching you two argue than trying to fix those fuckers," he shrugged and pointed to the grid of switchers.

"Anyway, just do it, Sigma!" she pressed me.

"If you ask it that nicely…" I sighed

I turned my back to her and looked at the switches. They were 9 lined in 3 columns of 3, in a grid of 3x3 on the wall, with no indication or label on them. Did I have to just try and see? I opened 2 and waited but nothing. Maybe they just were broken, but there was no opening to change them. Nor we had any spare. I tightened my fists. How did Phi expect me to…

Then I noticed something in my left fist. Opening it, I saw the Sudoku paper. As I was looking at it, I could see the grid of switchers from the corner of the eye. A grid of 3x3…

Then it clicked. It seemed ridiculous, but could they be related? The numbers not input in each space could be the hint I was looking for. The up corner on the left needed a 5 to be completed. I checked the upper left switch. Instinctively, I opened it and closed it 5 times. My excitement grew as I went on with the other switches, following the Sudoku numbers.

After I finished with the most down right switcher, I heard a click and glanced at Phi, who arced her brows. Then Omega noticed the screen on the left of the room.

"Hey, you did it, dude! This bastard is on!"

"Yeah!" I cheered

"Not bad," Phi said with a half smile. Meh, the ice queen didn't even bother to give me a little hug of praise.

Yeah, a hug of praise, haven't you heard of those? Same as with kiss of agreement and cuddle of greetings.

What? I'm not inventing them!

At least not on purpose.

Anyway, the screen was on and from the excited voices we could hear from the other room, their screen should be on too.

In any case, we checked the screen and instantly, disappointment rose in our faces.

"A password?" complaint Omega

"9 digits no less," I added

"Well, let's try anyway," Phi suggested, starting to try random numbers.

I mentioned that it was possible the password wasn't only numerical, since the keypad had letters too. But she just ignored me. Omega and I looked to each other and shrugged. He went back to check her efforts, but I soon bored of it. From what had happened before, I had the feeling chance wouldn't help us solve any of the quests in the room.

I went back to the next room over. Beta and Delta were focused on their screen. They weren't doing anything, so I approached them, fearing another password, but it was none of the sorts. The screen was divided in two sections, the above part had 5 icons that looked like antennas with numbers below them. They were distributed in a 5 element formation like the dots of the 5 face of a dice, 4 in the corners and one in the center. However, they weren't numbered 12345, but 86420.

I still had the Sudoku paper in the hand but I couldn't tell how would that help. Looking below that part of the screen, in the second window were some commands waiting. And 5 squares with empty spaces inside and the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 next to each of them

Please, apply the complementary digital root rule and move the antennas the degrees needed for planet's position.

"What on earth…?" I asked aloud

"Complementary digital root," answered Delta. With her glasses on, serious face and her labcoat, she looked like a teacher about to give a lesson, "I guess you know what a digital root is, correct?"

"Hum… of course, but I bet you'll look cool if you also explain it."

Yeah, I have no idea what she was talking about.

"Ok, the digital root is the sum of the digits of a number over 10 until there is only a single number. So the digital root of 23 is 2+3=5, the digital root of 85 is 8+5=13, then 1+3=4. Only numbers between 1 to 9 can be a digital root."

I nodded. It was an easy math thingy. No biggie.

She followed the lesson; "The complementary digital root rule is applied to a single number by getting the number that adding to it, gives a 9. So, that would make 8 into a 1, 7 into a 2 and so on."

"So the numbers of those antennas…"

"Would really be 13579, as stated below," she finished.

I looked at the screen, "That makes sense with the numbers below, but I wonder why those numbers. I wonder what happened with antenna and 8…"

"Maybe they are in the empty spaces in between," she suggested.

"Huh?" she had lost me there.

"Just look at the icons above like this. Don't they look like making a 5 dot image?"

I nodded, still not getting it.

"Then imagine it wasn't a 5 dot image, but a 9. Wouldn't that make the empty spaces into the antennas not named?"

I agreed and nodded again. But I still didn't know how that could help… us…

9 antennas… 9 numbers… The paper!

I quickly checked the paper, in this case, just the 5 numbers that were not written in the corners and the center squares, 59634.

Feeling excitement again, I typed the numbers in the respective space and pressed intro.

Error. Planet not aligned. Please, select another angle.

"Shit, I was so sure of that answer…"

"Have you forgotten already what 's written in the request?" Beta scolded me, in a sneering tone.

Fuck you too, buddy.

But anyway, let's check the question again... hum… complementary digital root rule… ooooooh…

I quickly replaced the numbers by those which 59634 complemented a 9, 40365 and pressed intro.

Mercury aligned

Saturn aligned

Venus aligned

Jupiter aligned

Earth aligned

"Good work Sigma!" Delta praised me, but still no hug, meh. Also… another disturbing thing…

"Earth aligned? Damn…"

"But that shouldn't be true…" commented Delta, taking out her glasses and rubbing the glass with the coat clothe.

I was wondering what she meant, when the screen flashed and changed, leaving just one word.

ALIGNMENT

I smiled. A word of 9 letters. Nice. I knew exactly where to type it.

I went back to the second room and, ignoring Omega and Phi, sat on the chair and typed that word into the password space. After clicking intro, the screen changed and it was replaced by:

Hermes' room unlocked.

"Well done, Sigma!" finally Phi smiled broadly, if only for a moment.

"You're the man, dude!" exclaimed Omega, grabbing me by the neck in an armlock that for him should look like friendly, but with those huge arms, it almost choked me. After a whole minute messing with my hair, I was free to go.

We three reunited with the other 4 and after some praises from Delta (the other three didn't bother to even smile, not that I could see Iota's mouth anyway), we decided to get out and continue our quest for freedom.

We all got out of the Hermes room and ended in a hall. At the end of it, there were 2 doors. Theta quickly got so close she was almost touching the metal plaques with the images that would give the room their name. On my dial, 2 symbols were already spinning and there was something else that brought my attention. 2 things, actually. First, there were 4 little empty slots in the base of the dial and before the Hermes room all were off, now one was emitting a green light. I could guess that was the "blessings of the gods" we needed to disable the bracelets. There were only 3 dots left, making me to assume that there were 3 rooms left to complete before we could escape.

I grinned at the thought. It hadn't been so difficult to get out of the first room.

Then my smile vanished when I noticed the second interesting thing from my dial. In a corner where the numbers doing the countdown till 9 hours had passed, it showed 5:42.

My head started to spin, making everything else around me foggy. Had we really stayed in that room more than 3 hours? At that pace, we won't escape in time!

* * *

"Sigma!"

"Whah! Don't startle me like that!" I glared at Phi, who was glaring back at me.

"Don't doze off like that, then. I'm asking you what room you had chosen."

I glanced at the dial, the countdown numbers had moved to a side to leave space for the spinning symbols.

Wait.

Wasn't the countdown at 5:42? Why the hell it now said 5:37?

"I think my dial might be wrong…" I started to explain her but she just urged me to chose a door already. I made a face and pressed the dial, "It's not as if we could CHOSE where to go, right?"

"Actually…" but she didn't finish the sentence, as both stared at the screen of my dial until it landed in the Delta symbol.

"Delta, huh…" I looked at the doors. One had a fat guy drinking and the other one was a guy with a hammer and a fire behind him or something.

Phi noticed me looking at the doors and decided to make it easier, "Dionysus and Hephaestus. Gods of wine and craftsmanship."

"So I go through the Dionysus door… who with?" I asked the rest. I looked at Delta but she smiled, apologetic.

"Sorry, but ironically, I didn't get a Delta," she said, close to the right door. Beta went there too.

I walked towards the left door where everyone else was waiting, "You all guys have a Delta?"

Theta got her dial almost touching her sunglasses, "I'm not sure what's written here… what does it say?"

"It's a Delta too, grandma," Omega checked it for her

"Hey, watch your mouth, you punk!" she growled at him threatening with her cane.

"Uhhh… the granny is about to cane me, see how much I tremble. Or not. I'm not sure you can see me with the eyesight from hell you have, ha ha ha!" he mocked her.

"Come on, let's be friendly, we don't need to fight against each other…" I tried to calm everyone, but Iota decided to talk. His voice sounded deep behind his helmet and I could almost notice a bit of anger.

"Friendly? Hah! As if I could trust any of you. Who knows who of you will end being Zero!"

"Who of us? Wait, you mean…"

"That Zero is one of us. That makes sense," Phi agreed in a calm serious tone.

"Sense, how so?" I asked her. But she just bit her thumbnail, lost in thought. It was Beta who answered.

"The room puzzle was automatic. So were the announcement and the bracelet functions."

"But that doesn't prove it's one of us, I mean…"

"Don't be naïve, Sigma. If you trust people that easily, you'll soon find yourself dead," stated Iota. "In fact," he added, "You're the most suspicious one!"

"The hell I am!"

What the hell, man? Now I prefer this bastard quiet and asocial.

"Hum! How stupid. Young people nowadays think they know everything! In my times…" Theta started complaining but we ignored her.

"We are losing time," Beta announced, opening the Hephaestus door and getting inside, followed by Delta. Then I heard a lock after they closed the door. I hadn't noticed before that the entrance door stayed locked until you solved the puzzle, just like the exit one.

I checked my bracelet dial. It said 5:16. Fuck, Creepybeta was right. We're running out of time!

"We can discuss things later on. Right now we must go on. We have about 5 hours left!" I rushed the rest. No one replied, but we all went through the Dionysus door. I heard the click behind me after the door closed. We were locked inside, at least until we could find our way out.

Looking around, I noticed that if we had gotten a bit stressed out due to suspicion (as we all were), this would be the best place to relax.

If we had the time.

Which we didn't.

Crap…

The room looked like a pastime place. It had a billiard, darts, a table with chairs and a deck of cards and a big console attached to a TV. It looked like some kind of videogame. There was also a CD player to play music.

In front of me, on the opposite wall, was the exit door. It had the same locked little box but with a small round thing attached that looked like the visor of a microscope. Iota and Phi were checking it and I joined them.

"Looks like a retinal scanner," Phi stated, oddly hesitant.

"Do we need then someone to open it?" I asked

"Probably," she replied, "But I doubt any of our eyes can do it."

I looked at Iota to see what his opinion was on the matter. But of course he was being his usual proactive self by leaning on the wall with his arms crossed.

Whatever, asshole.

Theta was seated on the card table and was shuffling cards. But she was just doing that. I wonder if she could really see the card numbers. Omega was checking the music system, but he didn't seem to know how did it work.

I was thinking of helping him, but instead, decided to check another place for hints.

Or maybe later, let's see what his problem is.

I approached him. "Hey Omega, what's wrong?"

"This thing is stuck!" he complaint.

I looked over his muscular shoulder. The CD player was really weird. It looked modern from far away, but up close it looked like one of those old disc players. But the arm that gets each disk was stuck. I leaned into it, closer and saw something around the base of the arm that didn't let it move. I managed to snatch it. It was a piece of grey cloth. It had something written.

Omega took it from my hand before I could watch it, "Hey!"

But he ignored me, and then glanced at the dartboard. I looked at the cloth and saw a dart drawing on it and some numbers: 3x3x3

"The dartboard?" I asked, "Does that means making a 3 in the dartboard?"

"Only once? I wonder if…"

Without waiting for him to finish, I quickly dashed towards the dartboard. No time, no ceremony. Then, an electronic warning from the dartboard:

BEEP, player too close

I looked down, there was a semicircle going around on the floor, like those in a basketball field, but with the dartboard as the basket. I guess it was to avoid cheating.

Or was it really?

I took the three darts that were sticking to the dartboard. Maybe the first 3 meant throwing it 3 times. Looking at it, it seemed like a normal dartboard with the 20 numbers and the concentrically circles for doubles and triples. Without stepping away, I just took a dart and inserted it in the number 3, but again it beeped.

BEEP, player too close

"What the hell you doing playing darts?" Phi glared at me from the exit door

"Chill, girl. We found a clue," Omega informed her. She got closer and checked the cloth. We told her our thoughts about it.

"And that's why we thought of hitting the three 3 times."

"Hum… I wonder…" She bit her thumbnail again and got deep in thought.

However, we didn't have much time to waste. I stepped out of the semicircle, pointed and threw the dart.

Fuck, it missed.

I tried with the other 2 and nothing. The last one even went out of the dartboard.

"Oh boy, you're bad!" Omega laughed, "Let me try."

He took the darts and managed to hit the 3 once. He was still no good. I look at the rest. Iota was still on the wall, ignoring us. Phi was silently deep in thought and I didn't even bother with Theta. Her eyesight wasn't gonna help with her accuracy, to say the least.

We kept on trying. At some point, Phi snapped out of it and tried too, but she was even worse.

I don't know how much we played, but finally, Phi managed to hit a 3 three times in a row.

We waited, but nothing happened.

"As I thought, it wasn't that…" Phi commented.

"What wasn't?" I asked.

"The way you interpreted it. It wasn't three times a 3," she pointed out.

"Maybe it's 3 times a double 3 (a 9) or 3 times a triple 3?" suggested Omega.

"Or hit 3, 9 and 27 one after the other?" I added.

"Those are the only combinations that I can think off," Phi agreed with us. "I'll try hitting 9 three times."

"I'll try hitting 3 times 27, the triple 3," said Omega, which left me hitting 3,9 and 27.

I checked the time. Oh shit, 4:34. Have we really wasted an hour already?

We started the new strategy and each one tried our shots at the dartboard. It was complicated. Not only was it difficult, but also very time-consuming.

It didn't help when Theta yawned, "Why are you taking so long, kids?"

I could answer her in so many ways... All of them rude.

Then, Iota approached us and without a word, he took the darts from Phi (it was her turn) and without neither effort nor one miss, hit the 9 three times. We waited for a signal, but nothing happened. Then, he hit a 3, then a 9 and then a 27 but still nothing, finally he aimed for a triple 3 three times. That time it needed more than one chance to hit three in a row, but he finally managed to do it, to our astonishment. There was no time to congratulate him, not that he seemed interested, as he went back to his wall as if noting was happening.

And it was. The lower face of the device holding the dartboard opened as if it had a little gate and some tubes fell from it, landing on the floor.

Phi noticed they were connected, having the sides with marks that seemed to join and I did so, joining the parts until I had a 5 feet wooden billiard stick.

"Are they suggesting us to play billiards?" I asked.

"No shit, Sherlock," Omega said.

"There is a problem, though. Look," Phi pointed to the billiard table.

The three of us went there and checked the billiard. It had the 6 holes like normal, but the hollow from where the balls get out was sealed shut.

"Are we supposed to play without balls?" Omega asked Phi. "Maybe a girl could…" he added smirking.

"Idiot!" she replied him, annoyed.

"Maybe we can find the, hum, balls somewhere else," I suggested.

"Why, don't you have the balls to play?" laughed Omega

Oh dear god…

"I'm surrounded by morons," claimed Phi, lifting his arms in the air and getting away from us.

In any case, there weren't many places left for the balls to hide. Phi went towards Theta to check on the table and chairs and Omega and I went towards the TV screen and the game system attached to it.

Immediately we saw something off. The screen didn't light on. The game didn't seem to work either. Then Omega started hitting the screen.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Trust me, my Tv does the same thing all the time," He said, giving it another shove. I grabbed his arm.

"What if we have to fix it for us to get the balls and hitting it just breaks it and we become stuck in this room?"

He smiled and flexed his biceps under my hand ,"Hey, if u wanted to feel my arms, you just had to ask."

I'm seriously killing this braindead before we get out.

He got his arm away just in time for the outside part of the screen to fall on the floor, revealing the billiard balls inside. There were no circuits inside, it was just decoration.

I looked at him and he grinned.

Fine.

Ok, we had the balls, the stick, and the pool table. And no idea about what to do next.

I left the prizes on the pool table and went towards where phi and Theta were. She was ordering the cards on the table. On a closer look, I could see the cards had some lines drawn on them.

"It's a puzzle," she explained without glancing at me. I didn't say anything and left her to do it. Instead, I turned to her companion.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner we had a puzzle here to make?" I asked Theta, but she just grunted.

"I bet the grandma mole didn't see the lines," joked Omega.

"Shut it, punk!" She barked.

"Seriously, I wonder what the hell Zero was thinking when he abducted you," he wondered out loud.

"Well, what was he thinking when he abducted the rest? And why?" I asked him.

He stared at me confused, "The hell I know? I'm not a psychic!"

"Then what were you doing before you were abducted? What is the last thing you remember?" Phi asked him without looking at him.

But he frowned, "That's… personal," and he looked down.

What? I wouldn't have any trouble just saying I was coming home from college before I was abducted. Was Iota right and everyone was more suspicious that I thought? Was I too naïve? But he finally answered.

"Fine, It was about a job offer… but It's not as if I wasn't able to do anything else… I mean…" His white cheeks turned red. Was he getting embarrassed about it? I guess you can't judge a book by its cover. Well, that doesn't make him a bad guy. Or a good one.

Oh well, Iota would suspect the Pope, it seems.

Eventually, Phi finished ordering the cards and we saw the message. It was a drawing of the balls aligned in a particular way in the starting position.

I rearranged the balls as the drawing said and finally took the white ball and the stick.

"Then, what now?" I asked, but they just stared at me silently.

"Why don't you guess it again? You figured it out before suspiciously easy, why not again?" Iota said.

I blinked. I looked at him, then at the others, but they weren't looking at me in the face.

Wait a second…

"Are you saying that my luck makes me suspicious? How about you, being in a death place and looking as calm as to not do a thing?" I accused him.

"We shouldn't fight each other," Phi advised us, "Time is running short."

But she still didn't look at me to the face. Damn.

I positioned the white ball in place and with all the anger I could build, I gave it a big hit.

Crack!

Maybe I hit it too strong, cause 3 balls broke.

I swore.

"You must be stronger than you look, or these balls are made of shit," Omega commented.

"I wouldn't worry," Phi told us, "Look at the opened balls"

Opened? We looked and it seems they didn't realy break, but had something inside. 3 small pieces with indentations that looked like they would fit together. Phi joined them and when she finished, she had a golf sized white ball, with a little hole on one side covered by a circular blue glass.

"It looks like an eye-"

Wait a sec…

Immediately we all looked at the door-locking device.

"Let's try this," Phi proposed.

She put the "eye" in front of the scanner and after a couple seconds we heard a buzz and the display screen in the locking device changed to a green "unlocked".

Dionysus room unlocked

"We did it!" I exclaimed.

However, the rest weren't as happy as I was. Or at least, they didn't show it. Iota exited the room without a word. Theta did the same but grunting some complaints about us taking too much time and her hips giving her problems to walk. I expected that, however, Phi stopped next to me before getting out.

"You're quite good at this kind of stuff. Have you ever done this before?"

"What? How would I have done this before?"

"Well, it's just that… I feel like you had already, I mean…" but she bite her thumbnail and continued her path without finishing explaining.

Omega followed her and same as she had done, he spoke, "She's right, you're good at this."

Not you too…

"But I'm glad you are. If not, we could be stuck in that room forever," He smiled and continued his way out.

Huh. Well, look at that.

Oh well, it's not as if I cared what the rest think of me. I didn't even know them. Checking the dial, I grew impatient: 2:54. We had to hurry up.

I followed them into a wide hallway and then through another door. We ended in a corridor with 2 doors. Before I could check them out, I noticed Phi was looking back. There was another door not far away from the door we had gotten from. Maybe it was the exit of one of the other rooms the rest had been checking. Were we supposed to meet here together for this new choice of doors?

However, if that was the case, they were late. Lambda, Mu, Delta and Beta. What had happened to them? Were they ok? Were they trapped in a room trying to solve some puzzle? I couldn't tell.

"Sigma!" Phi startled me all of a sudden

"Hey, why are you shouting at me all of a sudden?"

The rest were looking at me, with an odd expression. Phi looked at me worried.

"Do you have any kind of sleeping or hearing problem?" She asked me.

"Huh?"

"Nevermind," She sighed, "Just chose a door already."

"Aren't we waiting for the rest to solve their puzzle room and join us first?"

"We did. But we already discussed to continue and if they follow afterwards, then great. Weren't you listening?" Omega looked at me as if I was the weird one.

When had we been waiting? We had just arrived here!

"We have less than 2 hours. We can't wait any longer!" Phi insisted me.

Less than-?

But my train of thought was interrupted for a second.

"What's the point anyway?" asked Iota

"Excuse me?" Phi, Omega and even Theta stared at him.

However I couldn't care less. I was looking at my dial in shock. What was happening to me? I was sure I had checked the time after we escaped last room and it said almost 3 hours!

I checked it again: 1:58

Maybe the stress was too much to handle. Or maybe there was something wrong with my head. I looked at the symbols spinning. Alfa and Zeta. I guess it didn't matter which one to chose.

"Chose already, boy! I'll die of old age at this pace!" complaint Theta.

"Will we really have the chance to get out and become older?" wondered Iota.

Omega shook his head, "Pessimism aside, chose already Sigma."

God, why are they so impatient…

* * *

Then I looked at the countdown again.

1:51

No way!

"Sigma!" Phi shoved my shoulder and I touched the screen. It stopped in the Zeta.

I looked at the doors. One had a bearded guy with a thunderbolt in his hand. The other had an almost naked young guy with a sun behind him.

"We'll go through the Apollo door then," said Omega, "Come on, granny."

"Hey! Wait up, punk, I'll teach you how to-" But theta's complaints were silenced after the door closed behind her.

"Those two never seem to agree. I wonder if they will be all right…" I pondered aloud.

"Why don't you worry about your own situation?" Phi advised me.

I nodded and followed her and Iota inside the god of thunder's, Zeus', room.

This time, I ignored the lock of the door after closing and directly inspected the room. Or was going to, but then there was a electronic voice on the speakers

Magnetic field generator offline, please, connect again in order to unlock door.

"Magnetic field?" I asked

"It makes sense. Mars hasn't a magnetic field like Earth. If we're in a Mars base, it's obvious we need a magnetic field to protect against the sunwind," Phi explained.

"Don't tell me you're buying it, that we're on Mars." I objected with some doubts.

She didn't reply to that, though, "Let's just search this place and connect the field so we can leave."

I nodded. I didn't even bother to look at Iota. I was fed up with the annoying bastard. Looking around, we could see that the walls were metallic and full of dials, buttons, displays and screens, though most of them off. The room was quite big, without windows and divided into 2 sections by a glass wall. The other section didn't seem to have a door to enter to but I could see through the glass a metallic machine the size of a truck and the shape of an octopus, with huge wires acting like tentacles and a secondary machine, that looked like a cylinder with narrow wires.

Next to the glass wall was a diagram with wires, levers and numbers. On top of it it had the label: Power on. Another part that picked my interest was a little flashcard. I put it in my pocket, you never know in which puzzle it might be needed afterwards. Then I joined Phi, who had found 2 things. A display with colored diodes and dials and a keyboard to do something with it and a screen with the label magnetic field generator control label on it.

"That's what we need to operate."

"Bad news, they are all switched off, the power is not working," she replied.

"On my side they were too, but there was also a display with wires that seemed to connect the power," I signaled to it

"You should have tried to activate it as soon as u saw it. I'm always telling you don't need my permission to- huh?"

"What are you talking ab-" I got as frozen as she had. We were looking at the power wires display.

Iota was there. He had ripped some of the wires from it and it's sparky endpoints pointed towards him self.

"You idiot! If you break the puzzles we'll get stuck here!" Phi finally reacted

"It doesn't matter. Nothing matters… Even if we get out, everyone will die… I've just seen it," He replied

His voice had a monotonous tone that sent a shiver down my spine. I had a feeling I knew what was he on about, "Hey, Iota… be careful with that…"

Then, Phi realized what I meant. I noticed she about to dash, but before she could give a step. Iota screamed, "If I'm going to suffer and die, I prefer to die here and now!"

And he threw the wires towards his chest. Sparks, another scream and a disgusting stench filled the space before us. When I could open my eyes, Phi was already checking the system, being careful with the cut wires and Iota was on the floor, a suspicious smoke getting from his neck. I gave some steps and kneeled down before his body.

I touched his neck with my finger and a little spark made my hand to jerk away. Cursing, I tried searching for his pulse again, but just as I had thought… I shook my head.

Why? Why had he committed suicide? It made no sense!

Phi let herself fall on the floor, "It's no use, the system is short-circuited," she stated, defeated.

"Then, the field generator control?"

"We can't operate it without energy. It's over," she replied

"It's not over yet!"

"Just look at your dial!" She barked at me.

I did so and froze. 00:04.

"What is going on? We've been searching this room just about 35 minutes tops!"

She narrowed her eyes, confused, "And I've been almost an hour trying to fix Iota's mess."

"No way… what's going on here? Why I don't feel the time pass normal?" I was starting to get scared. It was almost difficult to breathe.

She narrowed her eyes even more and rubbed her head, "What are… you saying… don't talk… so slow…"

*cough* "What are you talking about?" *cough*

Then she collapsed. I couldn't stop coughing, the air was starting to feel empty. It was like trying to fill my lungs without having anything to fill them with.

Why?

The answer came from the corner of my eye. I could see the dial with the countdown. It said 00:00

Game over.

So the game had finished and whoever not in the shuttle on his way to Earth was trapped in a base whose windows got opened and the air leaving the base.

It made sense.

No. Actually, it didn't. Nothing made sense.

Why were we here?

Where was here really?

Why us?

Why me?

Who was Zero?

Why did I have to die for a stupid game?

What was the purpose of this game?

Why did I knew Phi and where from?

Why had Iota killed himself?

If only I had done something earlier…

If only I had chosen another option…

The darkness engulfed me and I started floating into the nothingness.

END (Game Over)

* * *

 _Author's note: Not really the end of the story, but of THIS storyline (there will be more storylines/timelines, or chapter, as the main character makes a different choice... well, people who had played the games will know what I mean._  
 _Also, I was going to use those long lines to difference scenes, but since the main character is always narrating things, it's a story that doesn't makes pauses from scene to scene. He mention the crossing doors, the description of the new room, etc. If it's confusing like this, please, do tell me in a comment or something and I'll try changing it. What I have used the lines for was to point out important points in the story, where if it was in game format, you would be able to make a choice there. For those I used a double line. Those points will be used for the starting point of following chapters, so you can use them for reference (I'll make a summary anyway, so it won't be really necessary to go to a previous chapter to know what happened so far, but only a summary of event needed for understanding said chapter)_.


	2. Chapter 2

ZERO ESCAPE: Last hope. Ch2

 _Author's note: Consider this chapter as if it was a paralel history for the previous chapter 1, with one of the choices being different, provoking a different ending. As It might be boring rereading all over again the same events before the choice change and you might not notice when was the change, I prepared a summary with the events that happened before that appear in this one too. Trying to make it as similar as the game version could be. (in the way that there you can fastforward text that u already did.). Anyway, enjoy._  
 _Also, this is a work of fanfiction, as the website name implies. Zero escape, its plot and characters don't belong to me._  
 _Edited with the help of a beta reader._

* * *

Summary of repeating events for this chapter:

Sigma wakes up in a cell. From MARS? Voice threatens to kill unless escape. Solves the puzzle and gets out.

Join 8 more people: big guy Omega, labcoat Delta, overly suspicious Phi, moto suit Iota, old mole lady Theta, kid Mu, bald businessman Beta and asocial Lambda.

Their kidnapper Zero speaks about the nonary game. One exit. Explosive bracelets. 9 hours.

Bracelet dial shows choices for doors. 2 choices: Heracles door and Hermes door. Chooses Hermes alongside Omega, Theta, Beta, Phi, Iota, and Delta. Mu and Lambda chose Heracles.

Communications room solved!

5 hours left. 2 new choices: Dionysus door and Hephaestus door. Chooses Dionysus alongside Omega, Theta, Phi, Iota. Beta and Delta chose Hephaestus.

Might Zero be one of them?

Recreation room solved!

2 hours left. New corridor with a possible door in the back from other abducted yet to join them. 2 new doors' choice: Zeus door and Apollo door.

Everything becomes blurry…

* * *

"Sigma!" Phi shoved my shoulder as I was about to touch the screen, and the Z symbol made my finger to stop just a bit before I could touch it. I really had a bad feeling about it.

"We can… choose, right?" I asked the exasperated Phi.

"Just be careful on the symbol and you'll touch the one you want," she replied.

"I did so and ended touching the Alfa.

I looked at the doors. One had a bearded guy with a thunderbolt in his hand. The other had an almost naked young guy with the sun behind him.

"We'll go through the Apollo door then," said Omega, "Come on; Granny, Sigma."

"Hey! Wait up, punk, I'll teach you how to-" but Theta's complaints were silenced after the door closed behind her.

"Those two never seem to agree. I wonder if we will be alright…" I said aloud.

"Why don't you worry about your own situation?" Phi advised me, following Iota into the Zeus door. It closed behind them.

I nodded to myself and followed Theta and Omega inside Apollo's room. Leaving the door to close behind me, I found myself in a hospital room, or an infirmary, I wasn't sure.

Surprisingly, Theta wasn't sitting in any of the chairs that were in the room but was checking the room instead, same as Omega. Glad at the change of attitude in the old bag, I joined them as well. We didn't have time to sit around anyway.

1:45

Damn.

The first thing that I noticed was how colorless the room was. Furniture, instruments walls, floor, and ceiling were all white. That helped to see the only things with color, apart from the black screens. Those were 4 mannequins seating on 4 benches next to some beds. They weren't ordinary beds, though. There was no mattress, just a plain surface with some screens on the side. There was a fifth bed and on the 5th bench, there was a medical file. I kept it with me as I kept looking.

Omega was trying to open a locker but it was locked or stuck. In any case, it didn't look like it was going to be useful so he stopped and checked the counter next to it. It had some cupboards with medicine bottles of different sizes and color stuff inside. Next to it, a balance was glued to the counter. Or so it seemed when I tried to move it. On one of the balance plates was a scalpel and on the other side a white colored pen, and a needle with a roll of string. Next to it was laying a little weight, but there was no indication of how much it weight.

I was still checking it when Omega snatched the file I was holding, "Let me see that…"

I was going to object, but I guessed it was my fault. I cold have checked it before and I left it like that. I saw Omega frowning and glancing at the mannequins, which Theta was checking with her hands. I looked at them. They were wearing no clothes and their only difference was the hair on the heads. One was blond, one brunette, one ginger and the last one bald.

Omega gave me the files back, "You do this. I'm not playing doctor with these, they are creepy."

"I rolled eyes, "Thanks a lot…" then I proceeded to read the files, "Clinic History:

6:30 Patient George arrived, 2 anesthetic doses given, ready for transplant.

6:45 Donor Patrick arrived, 3 anesthetic doses given, ready for transplant.

6:50 Getting Patrick's left Kidney, 2 0- blood bags placing, closing the opening.

6:55 Opening right side of Patrick lumbar area and placing the kidney, 4 AB+ blood bags used, closing the opening.

7:00 Patient Adam arrived, 3 anesthetic doses given, ready for surgery.

7:05 opening left side of Adam's abdomen, retrieving appendix, 3 0+ blood bags used, closing the opening.

7:10 patient Gilbert arrived, highly contagious, 1 vaccine dose injecting.

Warning: One try only."

I looked at Omega.

He grinned, "Told you, playing doctors."

But before I could scowl at him, our other teammate spoke, "One try only huh… if we do it wrong we won't be getting out… what hope there is left in this kind of game…"

Both Omega and I looked at Theta with a confused face. She looked defeated, sitting on the only empty chair as if one of the 4 mannequins was a dead sibling or something.

Omega shrugged and turned at me serious, "We only have one chance, don't fuck it up."

"Heh, Thanks for the cheers… Ok, first we have to follow the instructions, George arrived the first so he must-"

"Who is George?" Omega interrupted me.

"Damn, good question. If we chose the incorrect mannequin, we're fucked. We looked at them carefully as to guess who was who, but there was nothing on them that could identify them.

"What the fuck? There is no way out? Is this it?" he looked angry and hopeless.

"Don't lose hope, there is time left!" I tried to reassure him, but I was trying to do it to myself as well.

"It's useless," A voice said behind me. I turned to see Theta still sitting on a chair, spinning her cane in her hands, "How much time left? 30 minutes, 40?" she asked me, without even looking at my face.

She could have checked herself… or maybe not, being half blind and stuff. I checked my dial. It said 00:32 and so I told her. She shook her head and sighed, "No, that won't do. It won't be enough. We'll all die here…"

"Hey, cheer up, grandma! We're not dead yet!" Omega said and I nodded. Well, at least, he was looking not as defeated as before but I noticed his anxiety.

Ok, think. There must be something in this room. A hint to identify these dolls…

I looked again to the places I have checked before. Again, I ended at the scale. The scalpel there and the stitching were easy to understand, given the instructions in the medical files. Below the counter, I saw the cupboards with medicine bottles. I almost ditched them until something caught my attention. It was a 0+ symbol. I grabbed the transparent plastic bottle of red pills and checked the label: 0+ blood.

"Omega, didn't you check these bottles?"

"Yeah," he replied, "But I'm sure they didn't have a name like George or Adam on them."

I looked at the files again, then at the bottles. I looked through them till I found the labels mentioned on the files. Soon I had 3 bottles of red pills (labels: 0-, 0+ and AB+ Blood), one of the yellow pills (label: Anesthetic) and 1 of blue pills (label: Vaccine).

My head seemed to press my brain at that very moment and I had to grab my temples for a bit. When I opened my eyes again, the scale was right in front of me. I shook my head and checked the scale intently, "Maybe…"

"You all right, dude?" asked Omega.

I didn't answer and instead, took out the exact doses of the pills and positioned them all on one side of the balance, then the little weight on the other side. The moment they stopped moving, a click sound was heard on the locker that seemed useless before and I opened it without a problem. Omega checked the insides after patting my back, all smiles.

Fuck that hurt. I don't want that kind of physical praise. If it was a woman, though…

Then I looked at old bag Theta and felt a shiver down my spine.

Ok, better no praise at all from anyone! Honest!

"Good! Here are 3 identity cards. No pic but the cards are colored."

"Only three?" I asked confused.

"It's ok, once we identify the first 3, we'll know the one left."

Right… dunno what's wrong with my head, seriously.

"Patrick is red, Adam is black and Gilbert is yellow. Then, George has to be the baldy!" he announced.

I wasted no time, grabbed the bald mannequin and positioned it face down on the first bed starting on the left. On the next bed, I positioned the red hair one. Then I took the scalpel and cut the left low backside of Baldy. It was made of leather so it was a bit hard. A bit apprehensive, I inserted my hand and grabbed a small object. Out with it, it looked like a plastic kidney toy, but it had some weight on it. I placed it on the right side of the Red's lower back after using the string to close the first opening and cutting the second mannequin. I closed the second opening as well.

I took a large breath. Damn, I felt like I was a real surgeon, but it wasn't the lives of the 4 mannequins the ones worrying me at the time. I got the black haired mannequin and I positioned it next to Red in the next bed, facing up. Then I used the scalpel on his belly, cutting the leather on his left side and checking the inside with my hand and took a cucumber shaped toy that felt like lead and left it on the counter. Then I closed the opening.

I then looked at the blonde mannequin. I took it. It was just putting him on the bed and it would be over… Just that?

I looked at the files again. There was no surgery to be done on it. He only arrived and was administered a vaccine cause of a virus or whatever. I frowned. That seemed too easy. Besides, there were two beds.

"Why are there 2 beds?" I asked aloud.

Theta wasn't looking at me and Omega just shrugged, "Does it matter?"

I glared at him, "As far as we've seen this far, nothing is left to chance in here. If there are one bed more than is needed to be used, then it might mean something!"

He glared back, "We only have 10 minutes left, Sigma! Just place it in whatever bed and finish!"

"But if I chose the wrong bed… wait… the wrong bed… Oh… Those bastards…" I finally got it.

I checked the files: _patient Gilbert arrived, highly contagious…_

I grinned and put the last mannequin in the last bed, avoiding the one next to Black.

Then we heard an electronic voice.

Apollo's room unlocked!

"Yes!" I threw my arms up in a victory. And dodged the "friendly" praise pat in the back that was coming my way.

"How did you know it was the other bed?" he asked all smiles.

"If the patient was contagious, I wouldn't put it in a bed next to the others," I explained.

"Good one!"

"Now let's get out of here!" I said, running outside. I didn't even wait for them this time. What for, is not as if they were gonna wait there forever.

Outside, there was a large door in front of the one I had gotten out from, it had a sea carving on it with a merman holding a trident.

"Hey, check it out! This has to be the last door!" I checked my dial and there were 3 lights, only one left, "Guys, we're almost done!"

But I didn't get a reply.

I looked back. Theta and Omega must have been still inside the room as there was no one behind me. Also, not far from the door, I had just used, there was another closed one. Supposedly, the one Phi and Iota had to open.

What's taking them so damn long; we're running out of time!

Wasn't it weird for them not to follow me? I started to worry, so I went back to the infirmary.

I had been right to worry, both of them were lying on the floor. What the hell?

Wait… what's that red- Oh fuck… oh shit… No way!

"Hey, Omega, Theta!"

But they didn't move. I didn't need to move them either. At least, not Theta, she was lying with her face up, her glasses nowhere to be seen and a terrified expression on her face. The worst was her throat. It was sliced open.

I touched the body. It was still warm of course; she had been alive just a couple minutes ago! Why was she dead?

I looked at Omega, he was the only one who could have done this!

And still, he was also dead!

I slowly pushed him until he was facing up too. His throat wasn't sliced like her; he had only one insertion wound as if he had been stabbed with something.

Like the blood stained scalpel on his right hand.

With a trembling hand, I grabbed it. Indeed, it had the right size to create both wounds.

But why?

Had they gotten into a fight? Killed each other? They didn't seem to hate each other that much, at least openly. Besides, what could had Theta done to even damage Omega that much? He was twice her size! What had happened while I was checking outside? I had been out for just 2 minutes!

I gritted my teeth and forced my eyes closed. Nobody else had gotten out. Were they dead too? Why was everyone dead? Damn it!

I felt a hot shiver down my spine and in a quick rage I almost smashed the scalpel against the nearest wall, but I stopped before even starting, feeling defeated.

They were all dead. Theta had been right; none of us would escape. Was it useless?

I stared at the scalpel in my hand. My hand was now covered in blood too.

This game was a torture; I just want it to end.

The scalpel spoke to me offering the only way out.

Yes, that was the only way. Silly that I couldn't see it before.

I pointed it towards my throat and in a fast movement, it was done. I barely felt any pain, just my chest getting warmer from something dripping on it.

And my legs trembling.

I fell to the floor into a puddle of something red and sticky.

Right, it was my blood.

It didn't matter, though. It was over. Game over.

The darkness engulfed me and I started floating into the nothingness.

END (suicide)

* * *

Author's note: Way shorter than previous one. Mostly due to summary. Also, not the final ending yet, just another bad end. More to come soon!


	3. Chapter 3

ZERO ESCAPE: Last hope. Ch3

 _Author's note: Consider this chapter as if it was a paralel history for the previous chapter blah blah blah... Different choice, blah blah blah...Summary at start so you can skip already read text blah blah blah... aaaaand enjoy!_  
 _Also, this is a work of fanfiction, as the website name implies. Zero escape, its plot and characters don't belong to me._

 _Edited with the help of a beta reader._

* * *

Summary of repeating events for this chapter:

Sigma wakes up in a cell. From MARS? Voice threatens to kill unless escape. Solves the puzzle and gets out.

Join 8 more people: big guy Omega, labcoat Delta, overly suspicious Phi, moto suit Iota, old mole lady Theta, kid Mu, bald businessman Beta and asocial Lambda.

Their kidnapper Zero speaks about the nonary game. One exit. Explosive bracelets. 9 hours.

Bracelet dial shows choices for doors. 2 choices: Heracles door and Hermes door. Chooses Hermes alongside Omega, Theta, Beta, Phi, Iota, and Delta. Mu and Lambda chose Heracles.

Communications room solved!

5 hours left...

Everything becomes blurry...

* * *

"I think my dial might be wrong…" I started to explain her but she just urged me to choose a door already. I made a face and pressed the dial, "Fine. Then I'll choose the door, ok?"

"Actually-" but she didn't finish the sentence, as both Phi and I stared at the screen of my dial until it landed in the Eta symbol. She raised her brows, "I guess you did chose…"

"Eta, huh…" I looked at the doors. One had a fat guy drinking and on the other one was a guy with a hammer and a fire behind him or something.

Phi noticed me looking at the doors and decided to make it easier, "Dionysus and Hephaestus. Gods of wine and craftsmanship."

"So I go through the Hephaestus door… who with?" I asked the rest. I looked at Delta, "Not with you I guess."

However, she smiled, "Actually, I didn't get a Delta. Quite the irony I would say," she nodded to herself, close to the right door. Beta went there too.

I walked towards there, glancing at the rest, "You all guys have a Delta?"

Great, I'm stuck with the doctor and the creep…

Theta got her dial almost touching her sunglasses, "I'm not sure what's written here… what does it say?"

"It's a Delta too, grandma," Omega checked it for her

"Hey, watch your mouth, you punk!" she growled at him threatening with her cane.

"Uhhh… the granny is about to cane me, see how much I tremble. Or well, I'm not sure you can SEE me with the eyesight from hell you have, ha ha ha!" he mocked her

"Come on, let's be friendly, we don't need to fight against each other…" I tried to calm everyone, but Iota decided to talk. His voice sounded deep behind his helmet and I could almost notice a bit of anger.

"Friendly? Hah! As if I could trust any of you. Who knows who of you will end being Zero!"

"Who of us? Wait, you mean…"

"That Zero is one of us. That makes sense," Phi agreed in a calm serious tone.

"Sense, how so?" I asked her. But she just bit her thumbnail, lost in thought. It was Beta who answered.

"The room puzzle was automatic. So were the announcement and the bracelet functions."

"But that doesn't prove it's one of us, I mean…"

"Don't be naïve Sigma. If you trust people that easily, you'll soon find yourself dead," stated Iota, "In fact," he added, "You're the most suspicious one!"

"The hell I am!" What the hell, man? Now I'm glad I didn't have to go with him.

"Hum! How stupid. Young people nowadays think they know everything! In my times…" Theta started complaining but we ignored her.

"We are losing time." Beta announced, opening the Hephaestus door and getting inside, followed by Delta. I followed them, not wanting more trouble with the rest.

It' not because I was hurt or anything that they found me suspicious.

Even if I had reasons to be, since nobody defended me from Iota's nonsense.

What an Idiot.

Ok, I admit he had a bit of a point in not trusting and ok, Zero might be one of us, but… but still…

Then I heard a lock after I had closed the door. I hadn't noticed before that the entrance door stayed locked until you solved the puzzle, like the exit one.

I checked my bracelet dial. It said 5:16. Fuck, Creepy beta was right. We're running out of time!

Then I heard a girl's voice, "Brother!"

It was Mu! She was happily jumping around Beta.

"Wow, where did you come from?" I asked her.

She pointed behind me, I followed the direction and saw another door next to the one we had just passed through.

"I see. The Heracles room connects with this one too, same as the Hermes one," Delta deduced.

"I wonder if it connected with another one, same as our door connecting also with the Dionysus room."

"Yep, the other idiot went through the Demeter door," Mu mocked him, until Beta pated her head not in a nice way.

"Manners…"

"Au… ok, ok. I'm sorry."

Seeing them acting that way, made it almost impossible to think any of them being Zero. Not that I agreed with Iota or anything…

Well, better if we start already.

Looking around I could see we were in a kitchen with a place for eating too. Behind me, there were just the 2 doors we used to enter so we couldn't get out through there. I looked to the opposite wall and as I thought…

Actually, no. There wasn't any other door.

I wasn't the only one thinking that, everyone else was searching for another door, but there wasn't ANY other door.

"Crap, we're trapped here!" I left my frustrations to work.

"This wasn't how this should work…" Delta looked defeated when she mentioned that. Although her mood wasn't exactly what surprised me.

"What do you mean? How's this supposed to work? Better question, how do you know the way it's supposed to work? And why?"

She didn't look at me as I continued asking her. Instead, she was looking down.

"Is it possible that you are…"

But she didn't let me finish, and stared at me with fierce eyes, "That's not true! I would never risk lives this way! I would have never helped in this kind of way to test…" Then she put her hands on her mouth.

Say whaaaat?

I got closer to her "Help? To test what? What do you know?"

She looked really scared but I didn't care at the moment. However, I wouldn't be able to continue, as Beta stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"We can't lose time with this. All of that can wait until we're out."

"Out? And how do you exactly suggest we get out? There is no other door!" I snapped at him, angrily.

"Just because we can't see the exit now, doesn't mean there is none." He calmly said.

RARGH!

Ok, he's right. Or I hope he is. But I don't feel like agreeing with this guy. He pisses me off for no reason. No wonder Omega had trouble with him.

I sighed. I looked at Delta, who couldn't look back at me, then at the siblings, who looked back at me stoically and I turned my back to them.

"Whatever, let's search for a way out," I shrugged.

I looked around. The room was rectangular. On the wall on my back, there were only the two doors we have entered from. At my left, there was a fridge with two doors, a counter with a sink, some cupboards, and drawers. At my right, there was a furnace or oven and some more drawers. Further away and in front of me was a big round empty black table with one large bench surrounding it. The wall in front of me only had 2 posters pasted on it. There was something in between the posters and I was going to get closer when I glanced at Mu opening the fridge.

I looked over her shoulders. Inside the fridge, there were 7 small bottles with juice in them on 3 shelves. Mu took them out one by one so I could read the labels. First, there was grape juice with a purple color and with it in the upper self-was a red liquid filled bottle of what it seemed tomato juice. The second self-had a bottle of green apple juice and another one with orange juice. The lower one had a bottle of yellowish lemon juice, another one with dark blue liquid, whose label said blackberry and the last bottle had a light blue liquid in it. I couldn't guess what it contained in it, but it looked poisonous. A quick glance at the label let me know that it was… water? It seems, in this case, the plastic bottle was in itself, tinted blueish and the liquid inside had nothing to do with the color it showed.

"Hum… What to drink…" I got alarmed when I heard her say that.

"You shouldn't. Maybe we'll need them to get out," I advised her.

She pouted and nodded. I decided to let her alone for the moment and looked next to the fridge. There were several fragments of broken glass on the counter.

"Was this broken before?" I asked out loud, looking at Delta and Beta. Delta shrugged and Beta glared at Mu. I followed his gaze. Mu looked about to throw a tantrum.

"It wasn't me! That jar was broken before I arrived!" she defended herself from our silence glares.

A… jar? I checked the shards of glass more carefully. Indeed, there was something with the shape of a handle but not easy to see. I guessed she had checked it before, because there is no way to know it was a jar with a single glance, broken as it was.

Well, it might not even be part of the game, probably. Just wishful thinking, since it was broken. Looking at the rest of the counter, I found inside the sink (the faucet didn't work) a dish that had a brownish color with a big spot in the middle. Odd decoration. Following the counter to the right, I could see the ending. Just before it, there was a circular marking with a message written on it in red ink.

A jar of Mars

"What the hell is a jar of Mars?" I asked to no one in particular. The rest came and checked it, but didn't know what to answer, so they went back to their own investigations. Delta was checking the oven and the fires while Beta was checking the table. Mu was trying to open the second door of the fridge, supposedly the freezer, but it was stuck. Or locked. You never know in this place.

Below the circle mark was a drawer. I tried opening it, but it didn't move. The one behind it didn't move either. The part of the counter next to the fridge also had a drawer underneath. It opened easily. Inside were another dish, a big pot, and a white paper. I though I could see something shining on it, but getting it close to my eyes only made it to smell. It smelled like milk. I left the three items on top of the counter, next to the small shards of glass. The dish was yellowish with 2 darker rings in the outside. More odd designs. Not that I cared about that. I went further to check the table. It seemed that Beta had gotten bored of it and was checking the posters instead.

Before joining him, I looked at the table. Surprisingly, it wasn't as empty as I had thought at first. There was a dish already in the middle of it. It had yellow flames printed on its surface. The rest of the table didn't have anything in particular. It was black with some little shining dots here and there, like the outer space. If I got even closer, I could see a very faint grayish line. It was a circle. No, more. 2, 3… 8 concentric symbols surrounding the center of the table. Hum… what did that remind me of…?

I just shook my head and looked at the wall. There were 2 posters. Now that I was close, I could see better what was in between the posters. It was a hole. Narrower than a finger.

"What is that hole for?" I asked Beta

"How could I know?" He replied without even looking at it, or me.

I looked at the posters. One was really big and had the solar system drawn in it. The sun with its planet elliptic orbits around.

I blinked. It was so obvious. The sun was a flame circle. Like that dish. In the middle of space with orbits around!

"The other dishes!" I exclaimed and went back to the counter. The one with the big dot looked like Jupiter and the one with rings had to be Saturn. I checked the poster. Jupiter was in the 5th orbit and Saturn on the 6th. I looked at those orbits and saw in different places of each one a little dot. I put each dish on each dot. However…

"There are 6 more dishes left." Beta said.

I don't need you to tell me, baldy. I went back to the counter and looked again, but there were no more dishes. I went to the other side, where Delta was and told her about what I had found and she showed me what she had found. 2 more dishes. One was deep blue and the other was light blue with green spots. That one we supposed it to be the Earth and the first one to be Neptune, being the name of the god of water. I asked her if there were more, but she just shrugged.

"I didn't found anything else," she said, "What about you?"

"Nothing else except a pot and a piece of paper."

That seemed like it interested her a lot.

"Something written on it?" she asked

"Nothing. It was blank, but… it smelled"

She pondered for a bit. Then she went to the counter in front of her and checked the paper. She smelled it and smiled. Maybe she liked the smell.

Or maybe not.

"Did you know there are certain substances like milk and lemon juice, that are reactive to heat?" she asked me.

I think I recall something like that from a novel. Oh! I knew what she talked about! "A hidden message?"

She nodded and put the paper o top of the electric hobs, and lighted them on. We stared at the paper for a couple minutes and after a while, its started to get darker, but only in certain areas. As if it was magic, a text started to appear and in less that 5 minutes it was complete.

"Zeus, due to his position, and Aphrodite, to his vanity, like to be on top. Ares will check on his wife looking up at her so Time won't be checked. Hermes will fly in the Sky over the Ocean." She read aloud

"What in the world?" I asked

"It's a riddle," she explained, "Those are the greek gods and for what I can see, it talks about positioning them higher or lower."

"Then, Zeus and Aphrodite on top, Ares below and Hermes up too?" I tried

She shook her head, frowning, "No… If Hermes was up too, it would have been mentioned with Zeus…"

My headache was coming back, so I decided to place the dishes we had in their place in the table. The Earth in the 3rd orbit and Neptune in the 8th. There were still 4 dishes left. Mars, Venus, Mercury and Uranus. Earth, Saturn, Neptune and Jupiter were done. Oh, wait. Jupiter… what did it remind me of?

I had to left the thought to go due to my headache and I pressed my hands on my forehead. Looking forward, I could see the posters. Oh, I haven't looked at the other one. Is that a rainbow?

I got closer to it. It wasn't exactly a rainbow. It had a thick line with the 7 colors starting with red and finishing with violet.

"It's the frequency spectrum or color spectrum. It's used in Astronomy to notice movement in celestial objects," Beta said.

"So if they catch it with different colors over time, it has moved?" I asked

"Exactly. If the color moves towards the red, it's getting further away and closer if it goes towards violet."

"He, so when Mars goes further away due to its orbit, we see the red planet redder?" I joked

He just nodded. But didn't laugh. Meh, not my fault if the guy lacks a sense of humor.

Aaaanyway, so color means distance somehow… red is the furthest… violet the closest… and… 7 colors… oh, like in the fridge… Wait, that can't be a coincidence…

I went back to the fridge, and after getting Mu out of the way, I took the bottles out and ordered it like colors starting with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. And… now what?

"You know, I think there is something odd in the riddle," Delta chose THAT very moment to distract me.

"Well, it's a riddle, what did you expect," I replied with sarcasm.

"I mean, why Time, Sky and Ocean and in capitals?" she pointed out.

"Maybe they represent something…" I guessed

"Well, we know what the other represent. Zeus and the others were greek gods and…" but that, that she had just said rang a bell from earlier.

Zeus… and Jupiter. They are the same!

"Maybe those 3 represent gods too," she was still following her line of reasoning "Ocean is Poseidon, god of the sea."

"The blue sea that is also Neptune…" I thought aloud.

"Yes. The Sky should be Uranus and the Time Cronus."

"Was Cronus known by another name?" I asked.

"Saturn by the Romans," she answered.

Bingo. 7 gods that are 7 planets ordered in a position somewhere… I glanced at the open empty refrigerator… wait, it's not empty.

I got my hand inside and reached to the furthest place inside. There was a… dish! It was white so I didn't see it at first. I left it on the counter next to the pot.

So anyway… 2 posters, one with planets, the other showing distances. A table representing the solar system with the sun in the middle and the planets at difference DISTANCES… this starts making sense. Just a bit more…

So, distance from the sun. Mercury is the closest, so violet for him. Neptune the furthest, so red for him, and the rest as they were situated. Now the only thing left was solving the riddle…

"Got it!" Delta exclaimed.

Now, that's some timing. I explained my reasoning and she explained hers.

Zeus (Jupiter) and Aphrodite (Venus) on top. Since Ares is looking up to Aphrodite and doesn't notice the time, Cronus. It means Ares (Mars) is in the middle and Cronus (Saturn) down. Then Hermes (Mercury) and the Sky (Uranus) are as up as they can be without topping Zeus. So they go in the middle and Oceanus (Neptune) down with Saturn.

If we change the names for the colors we have associated…

Upper self: Green and Indigo

Middle self: Blue, Violet, and Orange

Lower self: Yellow and Red

I rearranged the bottles and the moment I inserted the last one, we could hear a click in below the fridge.

"Oh! Maybe the freezer can be opened now!" Mu exclaimed.

I guess she had been fighting with the freezer for some time now and wanted it to open already.

"Do the honors then," I told her.

She opened it with no resistance. Inside there were 3 dishes (finally) and a dirty ice cube. It was about 5 inches across and long. The frozen water must have been dirty before cooling enough to solidify, as the inside couldn't be seen. I let it there, though, and took the dishes to the table. One was red so it was easy to guess it was mars, 4th orbit. 3 dishes left, Mercury, Venus and Uranus. Not difficult. The gray one should be Mercury (good thing the poster had images of the planets a bit bigger so I could see how they looked.) I put Mercury in the 1st orbit. The white dish should be Venus, being the brightest of them all, so to the 2nd orbit. The one that was left was the only one left in the table, so it had to be Uranus by default. To the 7th orbit.

Just like with the fridge, a clicking sound was heard and I saw the sun dish being lifted from the table. Looking below it, it seemed that a part of the table had lifted it. Beta took the dish so I could check what had lifted. It was a small cylinder. It could be detached from the table and opened in the middle. Inside there was a plastic piece. It was like a smaller cylinder, about 1 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter. It had a hole on one of the sides, with a helical ridge inside the hole. That seemed to mean it wasn't complete.

Which meant we needed another piece. But where to take it from? I went back to recheck the kitchen area. Things have gone well till then. It was a matter of time before we found the piece left.

And then we would get out of the room.

And THEN we would get some answers from Delta.

Hm, talking about her, what is she doing on the floor? And that dark puddle? Had the ice cube melted or something?

Then I froze on the spot. The puddle was red.

Delta was lying on a puddle of blood, her body looking like a puppet with its strings severed. The puddle of blood was growing, getting close to another, smaller body.

Mu was kneeling close to Delta. She was moving, so she was fine. But still…

What the hell had happened?

I couldn't look at the body, so instead I forced my eyes to check on the little girl. She had her hands covering her face and her shoulders were trembling. Despite the lack of sobs, it was obvious she was crying from the shock, even if no sound was being made.

Or maybe I had become deaf, as the death of Delta was affecting me too.

Next to Delta's hand was a glass piece covered in blood in the tip. It was a big piece from the jar we had found earlier, but I didn't recall such a huge piece. The woman had looked a bit down, but nothing could indicate she would commit suicide…

Damn it, not only that. She had promised to tell me what she was hiding! Maybe she had never planned to do so. Was it such a huge secret to give your life for it?

Mu was still trembling, so I kneeled next to her and did the only thing I could think that would help her recover from the shock, it was possible. She was so young…

Shit, I'm over 20 and I'm still not recovered from it!

So I hugged her.

It was painful being the one to have to express its feelings so others can feel safe.

It really hurt.

Ow, shit, it hurt so much… especially in my chest. It's like anything I felt before. If there was such a pain, it would be from being stabbed…

My… chest… I can't… breathe…

"Ugh… Wha…?"

I looked down. The piece of glass was piercing the left side of my chest. A little hand holding it with a red handkerchief. I am not sure whether the red was originally the color of the cloth, or due to my blood. Or Maybe Delta's blood, who knows?

Looking up from my wound towards the hands holding the glass and up to her face. Mu was still trembling, but her face was twisted in a hellish grin. Her breathing was fast and her trembling started to turn into a laugh.

I really wouldn't have expected to be her. There was something off.

I was started to feel cold and my arms weighed like a ton.

I collapsed. I wasn't seeing anything and the last thing my fading senses got was a malevolent cackle.

Had Mu killed Delta? Why?

And why had Mu killed me?

Why would she kill, at all? She's a fucking kid!

And what was Delta hiding? I guess I'll never know… If only I had made her explain beforehand… If only I had saved her…

It didn't matter anymore.

The darkness engulfed me and I started floating into the nothingness.

END (knife)

* * *

 _Author's note: Not really a knife, but eh, close. Also, still another bad end and not the (true) END, more coming soon!_


	4. Chapter 4

ZERO ESCAPE: Last hope. Ch4

 _Author's note: Consider this chapter as if it was a paralel history for the previous chapter... yadda yadda._  
 _Also, this chapter is the one with the most different options so far, as the first option is already the different one, so it might be a bit longer that the last 2._

 _Plus, this chapter will repeat the kitchen puzzle from the last chapter, but things will turn out a tad different this time. Enjoy!_

 _Edited with the help of a beta reader._

* * *

 _Summary of repeating events for this chapter:_

 _Sigma wakes up in a cell. From MARS? Voice threatens to kill unless escape. Solves the puzzle and gets out._

 _Join 8 more people: big guy Omega, labcoat Delta, overly suspicious Phi, moto suit Iota, old mole lady Theta, kid Mu, bald businessman Beta and asocial Lambda._

 _Their kidnapper Zero speaks about the nonary game. One exit. Explosive bracelets. 9 hours._

 _Everything becomes blurry..._

* * *

Then Delta glanced towards the dial on her bracelet. "Everyone! Look at your dial!"

I did as she said. The dial was on and showed several things. I stared at it and my vision became a bit blurry, like dozing of a bit. My headache worsened for a bit and I felt more like floating than ever.

I suddenly opened my eyes, just to see an image in my head. It was my bracelet and it had the Eta symbol. I blinked and my head felt about to split in half. I rubbed my eyelids until a little hand grabbed my shirt and pulled a bit. It was Mu. She smiled at me and I smiled back.

"Have you chosen already, Mr. Sigma?"

"Chosen what?"

"On your dial you have to select a door, see?" she showed me her dial. It showed a Greek symbol, Eta. I looked at the rest. All of them were looking at me, waiting. When had they decided to go along with this? Even the old lady had stopped complaining. Checking my bracelet dial, there were 2 symbols rotating, an eta and an epsilon. The dial had no buttons so I was about to rub it to check when another painful sensation made me close my eyes again. Another sight appeared in my head. It was Phi and she said something, "Actually, yeah, you can choose the symbol if u do it carefully."

I shook my head. What the hell was that? I glanced at Phi, but she was not close at all and looking in the opposite direction. Had she just spoken to me?

I looked back at the screen and checked the spinning symbols. For some reason, The Epsilon irritated me, as if I had seen it enough, so I carefully pressed the screen in the Eta, where it stopped. On top of it, I could see a timer 8:52:45 doing the general countdown.

Ok, I had chosen the symbol… and?

I looked around, "So… What about the symbol we chose?"

"Isn't it obvious?" replied the old lady, "It's the choice of the door. That!" she used the cane to point at the left door, "Represents a drawing of the god Hermes, I suppose you can notice the wings and the caduceus. And that other one is the god of strength, Heracles," she pointed to the other one.

"Don't be a smartass now, you had to touch the engravings to notice that," complained the shy Lambda, although he didn't dare to make eye contact with her while saying so, and he even jumped a bit when she stomped her cane on the ground. I could almost hear a snarl from her.

"Let me tell you, young man, that my eyesight is not what it used to be. If it wasn't for my sunglasses, I couldn't even open my eyes!"

"Why is that so?" I asked, but she just shook her head, not willing to say anything else.

"So the ones with Eta (H) will be going through the Heracles door and the ones with an Epsilon through the Hermes door," stated Beta, stern as always.

"Aw, big brother, you have the door wrong!" complaint Mu, after checking Beta's bracelet.

"I see. Then behave till we get together again. You know what you have to do."

"Of course!" she smiled, and without waiting, got close to the right door. The door opened and she entered. The door closed behind her.

"Hey! Wait for the rest! Don't go alone!" I shouted running after her, but before I could reach the door, Phi grabbed my arm.

I looked at her with surprise.

"Do you really have an Eta?" she asked

I rechecked the dial. Yeah. I showed it to her. She stared at it for a moment and blinked.

"Weird, it wasn't that before..." she looked confused.

"Huh? Before, when?" now I was the one confused.

She stared at me for a moment and then, she looked away and bite her thumb. She finally shook her head, "No, that didn't happen, right?"

I didn't get what she was talking about but she just let me go and turned around, "Just don't be reckless, ok?" she said in a low voice.

What? I was going to press the issue when Lambda passed next to me and opened the door. I gave a quick glance at Phi and, turning around, I followed Lambda.

I heard the door locking behind me. I looked at it for a couple minutes, but no one was following, so I supposed they would be going through the other door.

Lambda and Mu were looking around so I did the same. It was a restroom. There were benches, shower stalls and toilet stalls on both sides of the room and in front, another door. I opened it and peeked inside. It had machines and weights like a gym. I guess that fit the room's name. At the far end, there was another door, locked. I guessed it was the exit.

I checked that area first. There were 2 treadmills and a couple bicycles. The bench press was loaded with just a long bar, but no discs. Those were ordered on a rack with weights that went from ½ pounds to 20. On the bench, there was a folder with a paper on it. The paper had a diagram drawn. 4 cubes with numbers inside. On the other side of the paper, there was another drawing. There were 4 vertical lines That bifurcated and joined (or not) with their neighbor line until they reached the bottom of the page and on each ending, there was a number there were numbers too on top of the 4 lines and what looked like a handle before the first bifurcation of each 4 first lines. That sounded familiar, I've seen puzzles like those, you have to decide where to move the handle to let the quantity flow to one side or the other so the quantity at the end of the line was correct. For example, if u have one line the bifurcates and has at the top 20 and on each ending 10, u know u must leave the valve looking down so half of each quantity goes to each side. If it was 20 on the left and 0 on the right, you know the valve must look to the left. Easy. But when there are more lines that tangle with each other, it gets more complicated. This one was easy and at the same time not. Easy cause there was only 4 valves. Difficult cause half the numbers were gone, although there were spaces that suggested if a number had 2 digits or whatever. Well, with just a bit of time I was sure to solve it. What I didn't know is what for.

There were other machines there but I noticed when checking on them, that the slot where the metal piece that secured the weights was empty in all of them. I wondered if it was important. On the wall, there was a poster with the human anatomy on it. It had letters written in different places, like A on the left arm or F in the ankle. I didn't give it much thought and went back to the shower area. Lambda was checking the toilet stalls while Mu was checking something on the floor. She seemed to be struggling to get something, but there was a metallic fence on the drain, halting her advance.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"There is something behind this. I can't reach it!" she explained, quite frustrated.

I looked at it, but the holes of the fence were too small for a hand to get through, even one small as Mu's. About a foot down I could see the shapes of something round, like shiny marbles.

"There is no way we can reach them with our hands…" I thought aloud, the holes seem just big enough for the marbles to pass… hum…

I left her to thought that up and I joined Lambda in the stalls, as he seemed to be struggling too.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" he screamed.

I gave a step back. Holy shit, what's with him? I hadn't noticed him much till now, but he really seemed a very nervous person. Maybe the pressure of being trapped was too much for him.

"Are you trying to open the toilet?" I tried to sound friendly, but he got defensive.

"Why? I can't?" He sounded defiant.

"Ooook, whatever you want…" I backed off towards Mu and her drain problems.

She was on the shower stalls trying to open them, but no water came from them.

"Weren't you trying to get the marbles?" I asked her, surprised how she had given up already.

"I am!" She assured me, "I only have to get water to fill the drain and the marbles should float to the surface. They are shiny, but I bet they are made of plastic."

"Good idea! But…"

"Yeah, there is no water…" she sounded defeated.

"And we can't get it from the toilets, Lambda has been trying to open them but…" I added.

"What's that?" she looked at the folder under my arm.

"I found it in the other room," I showed her and explained about the puzzle drawing.

"Oh! So maybe if you solve the puzzle we'll know of the combination of valves to make the water flow!" she said like it was obvious.

Damn, Why hadn't I thought of that already? I didn't notice before that the shower stalls were 4. I patted her head and put myself to it. It wasn't easy so it took me a while.

Just before I was done, she asked me, bored, "Are you done yet? If we can't get water that way, we can always kill that dead weight on the toilet and use his blood instead…"

Wait, what?

I looked at her with my brows touching the top of my forehead.

She started laughing, "Hahahahaaaaa, you should have seen your face…"

Creeeeeeeepy joke… damn kid.

I finished and got the combination of valves right. Then we proceeded to use it in the showers, that as soon as the last valve was on, water started flowing. Their individual drain was stuck, it seemed, as it soon started to overflow and reach the main drain. 5 minutes later, the small spheres were at hand.

"Heh, they are the size of eyeballs…" Mu mentioned.

Why would anyone compare anything to that? What's with this creepy kid?

Jeez….

Anyway, they were indeed made of plastic and could be opened. Inside they have some pieces of paper. 6 papers:

A=10

B=15

C=20

D=15

E=5

Run= 30 minutes

Right there, Mu stopped peeking over my shoulder and glanced at where Lambda was in a stall, "Hey you, why don't you go to the treadmill and start running, Just having to be 30 minutes more is more than enough."

I was impressed at her being so pushy.

"You stupid brat! Why should I do what you say?" Lambda replied with his voice almost trembling.

He had a point. But Mu just looked at the ceiling, as in deep thought, then shrugged and went inside the toilet stall, closing the door behind her. I could hear some noises. Then Lambda's voice.

"Ok, ok, I'll do it!"

He sounded terrified. And when he went out of the stall, he looked so pale that he seemed almost like a dead man. Mu went out after him, smiling innocently.

"What did you tell him?" I asked her astonished.

She looked at me confused, "Huh? Oh, just the truth. If he's doing nothing why is he even alive? I mean, he's gonna be useless? then go die, old man…"

I couldn't believe such words were coming from someone like her. But she didn't seem like she cared.

"So, what's next?" She asked me as if nothing had just happened.

I shook my head, "I have a little idea on what to do with the new numbers, but first, I want to check if the other side of the paper is useful."

"You mean the number referring to the toilet stalls?" she asked as if it was obvious.

It wasn't obvious, damn it!

"You already figured it out?" I asked surprised.

"Well, one side of the paper showed 4 things in that wall" she pointed to the wall where the shower stalls were "So it's easy to deduce that the other side of the paper refers to 4 things in front of the 4 mentioned on the other side," she pointed at the toilet stalls.

"It… makes sense…" I admitted.

I went towards the first toilet and checked the place. What the hell!

There is no toilet paper!

Ok, now seriously, there was nothing aside of the toilet and the string on top to flush. Since the toilet was unmovable, maybe it was the string the one I had to use. Maybe flushing the number of times specified in the squares of the paper?

I did so. 4 in the first one…. 6 in the second one… 2 in the third one… And the last one, 8!

Just when I finished, the toilet opened. I heard other noises from the other stalls. A quick peek confirmed it. Now they were all opened.

"Good job, Sigma!" she cheered for me.

I looked at the toilets, attached with cello tape on the inside of the opened sides, there was a metal prong. I immediately knew what was it for. I collected all of them and walked towards the next room over. The water had already stopped flowing on its own, so that what something we didn't need to worry anymore.

Lamda was running on the Treadmill. I checked the timer it had in the panel. It said 16:35. I guess we still have about 14 more minutes to finish the puzzle. Probably with time to spare. I checked the papers again.

A=10

B=15

C=20

D=15

E=5

Run= 30 minutes

And then at the poster on the wall. Yeah, the moment I had seen the ABCD letters in the paper, the poster came to my mind. They had to be connected.

In the poster the A was in the left arm, the B in the chest, the C in the upper leg, the D in the lower leg and the E in the back.

I quickly spotted the machines for biceps, quadriceps, calves and lats. The bench press was the one for chest so the discs will be the ones stating the weight. Yeah, I believed the numbers referred to the weight that should be adjusted. It was the only thing I could think about that made sense. I used the prongs for the weights on each machine and the discs on the bar.

Then everything was ready, except for Lambda, who still needed 5 more minutes to finish. So we waited.

The moment the timer read 30, there was a click coming from the door and we heard an electronic voice from the speakers.

 _Speaker: Herakles room unlocked._

"Yay!" Mu jumped from excitement while Lambda just fell to the floor exhausted. I was just eager to get out of there and get away from those 2.

We crossed the door and found a small room with 2 doors. One had the carving of a woman with a cereal plant in her hand. I supposed that was Demeter, goddess of nature. The one on the left was a man holding a hammer and a fire next to him. I could guess he was Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship.

I saw Mu checking her dial and pressing it and from a corner of my eye, I noticed lambda doing the same. I looked at my bracelets; a Delta and an Eta were spinning. The problem was, which one to choose.

Before I could do anything, Lambda grabbed the handle of the right door and entered without a word. I looked at Mu, who sticking her tongue out at me, entered the other room at the left.

I could choose which door to go through but I couldn't decide. Lambda looked unstable and unreliable enough to be needing some checking on him, but at the same time, Mu gave me a very bad feeling. I should be checking on her too. So, what would it be? Lambda or Mu?

* * *

Before my headache could get worse, I pressed the dial. It stopped at the Eta symbol. I guess I was to follow Mu, so I opened the left door.

I was in some sort of kitchen. I spotted Mu on the left next to a counter where a big jar made of glass was. She was holding it over her head and seeing her trembling arms, I sensed the danger. I run towards her in time to grab the jar in mid-fall against the counter.

"The hell are you doing, kid? Don't you see that's dangerous?"

I left the jar in its place again and glared at her, angrily. She pouted but didn't apologize.

Just then we both heard the door opening and looking back, I was surprised to see opening another door next to the one we had entered through.

Mu jumped, "Brother!" and ran towards him.

Indeed, Creepybeta had arrived, followed by Deltadoc.

I looked at them, "Where did you come from?"

Delta answered, "The Hermes room connects with 2 doors and this is one of them. The other 4 went through the Dionysus door. Did lambda go through another door as well?"

"Yep, the other idiot went through the Demeter door," Mu mocked him, until Beta patted her head not in a nice way.

"Manners…"

"Au… ok, ok. I'm sorry."

Seeing them acting that way, made it almost impossible any of them being Zero. Still, Mu creeped me out as much as her brother. For different reasons.

"We don't have time for this, let's start already," Beta stated, almost as if ordering us.

Frowning, I checked the dial of my Bracelet.

5:16.

Fuck, Creepybeta was right. We're running out of time!

Well, better if we started already.

Looking around I could see we were in a kitchen with a place for eating too. Behind me, there were just the 2 doors we used to enter so we couldn't get out through there. I looked to the opposite wall and as I thought…

Actually, no. There wasn't any other door there.

I wasn't the only one thinking that, everyone else was searching for another door, but there wasn't ANY other door.

"Crap, we're trapped here!" I left my frustrations to work.

"This wasn't how this should work…" Delta looked defeated when she mentioned that. Although her mood wasn't exactly what surprised me.

"What do you mean? How's this supposed to work? Better question, how do you know the way it's supposed to work? Why?"

She didn't look at me as I continued asking her. Instead, she was looking down.

"Is it possible that you are…"

But she didn't let me finish, "That's not true! I would never risk lives this way! I would have never helped in this kind of way to test…" Then she put her hands on her mouth.

I got closer to her, "Test what? What do you know?"

She looked really scared but I didn't care at the moment. However, I wouldn't be able to continue, as Beta stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"We can't lose time with this. All of that can wait until we're out."

"Out? And how do you exactly suggest we get out? There is no other door!" I told him, angrily.

"Just because we can't see the exit now, doesn't mean there is none," he calmly said.

RARGH!

Ok, he's right. Or I hope he is. But I don't feel like agreeing with this guy. He pisses me off for no reason. No wonder Omega had trouble with him.

I sighed. I looked at Delta, who couldn't look back at me, then at the siblings, who looked back at me stoically and I turned my back to all of them.

"Whatever, let's search for a way out," I suggested.

I looked around. The room was rectangular. On the wall on my back, there were only the 2 doors we have entered from. At my left, there was a fridge with 2 doors, a counter with a sink, some cupboards, and drawers. At my right was a furnace or oven and some more drawers. Further away and in front of me was a big round empty black table with 1 large bench surrounding it. The wall in front of me only had 2 posters pasted on it. There was something in between the posters and I was going to get closer when I glanced at Mu opening the fridge.

I looked over her shoulders. Inside the fridge, there were 7 small bottles of juice in them on 3 shelves. Mu took them out one by one so I could read the labels. First, there was grape juice with a purple color and with it in the upper self was a red liquid filled bottle of what it seemed tomato juice. The second self had a bottle of green apple juice and another one with orange juice. The lower one had a bottle of yellowish lemon juice, another one with dark blue liquid, whose label said blackberry and the last bottle had a light blue liquid in it. I couldn't guess what it contained in it, but it looked poisonous. A quick glance at the label let me know that it was… water? It seems, in this case, the plastic bottle was in itself, tinted blueish and the liquid inside had nothing to do with the color it showed.

"Hum… What to drink…" I got alarmed when I heard her say that.

"You shouldn't, maybe we'll need them to get out," I advised her.

She pouted and nodded. I decided to let her alone for the moment and looked next to the fridge. There was the glass jar I saved from the kid recklessness on the counter.

I should have told her off more about this. Broken glass was dangerous. She could have cut herself or… I dunno, cut someone with it… Hooooly shit, where did that came from? Heh, no matter how creepy the kid could seem, she wouldn't use a sharp object to hurt us.

Seriously, what on earth I'm even thinking?

Unfortunately, my mind wasn't gonna help me forget and even made me though of Mu laughing psychotically with a big piece of glass stained with blood in her hand.

I shivered and shook my head. I didn't have the time for that crap!

Well, it might be part of the game, probably. I left it aside for the moment. Looking at the rest of the counter, I found inside the sink (the faucet didn't work) a dish that had a brownish color with a big spot in the middle. Odd decoration. Following the counter to the right, I could see the ending. Just before it, there was a circular marking with a message written on it in red ink.

A jar of Mars

"What the hell is a jar of Mars?" I asked to no one in particular. The rest came and checked it, but didn't know what to answer, so they went back to their own investigations. Delta was checking the oven and the fires while Beta was checking the table. Mu was trying to open the second door of the fridge, supposedly the freezer, but it was stuck. Or locked. You never know in this place.

I glanced at the glass jar. Could that be a jar of Mars? Well, we were supposedly in Mars so it really was a jar of Mars… I lifted the jar and put it carefully so the base was exactly in the circle. It had the same size, but nothing happened.

Of course, it wouldn't be that easy.

Below the circle mark was a drawer. I tried opening it, but it didn't move. The one beneath it didn't move either. The part of the counter next to the fridge also had a drawer underneath. It opened easily. Inside were another dish, a big pot, and a white paper. I though I could she something shining on it, but getting it close to my eyes only made it to smell. It smelled like milk. I left the three items on top of the counter, next to the Jar. The dish was yellowish with 2 darker rings on the outside. More odd designs. Not that I cared about that. I went further to check the table. It seemed that Beta had gotten bored of it and was checking the posters instead.

Before joining him, I looked at the table. Surprisingly, it wasn't as empty as I had thought at first. There was a dish already in the middle of it. It had yellow flames printed on its surface. The rest of the table didn't have anything in particular. It was black with some little shining dots here and there, like the outer space. If I got even closer, I could see a very faint grayish line. It was a circle. No, more. 2, 3… 8 concentric symbols surrounding the center of the table. Hum… what did that remind me of…?

I just shook my head and looked at the wall. There were 2 posters. Now that I was close, I could see better what was in between the posters. It was a hole. Narrower than a finger.

"What is that hole for?" I asked Beta

"How could I know?" he replied without even looking at it, or me.

I looked at the posters. One was really big and had the solar system drawn in it. The sun with its planets and their elliptic orbits around.

I blinked. It was so obvious. The sun was a flame circle. Like that dish. In the middle of space with orbits around!

"The other dishes!" I exclaimed and went back to the counter. The one with the big dot looked like Jupiter and the one with rings had to be Saturn. I checked the poster. Jupiter was in the 5th orbit and Saturn on the 6th. I looked at those orbits and saw in different places of each one a little dot. I put each dish on each dot. However…

"There are 6 more dishes left," Beta said.

I don't need you to tell me, baldy. I went back to the counter and looked again, but there were no more dishes. I went to the other side, where Delta was and told her about what I had found and she showed me what she had found. 2 more dishes. One was deep blue and the other was light blue with green spots. That one we supposed it to be the Earth and the first one to be Neptune, being the name of the god of water. I asked her if there were more, but she just shrugged.

"I didn't found anything else," she said, "What about you?"

"Nothing else except a pot and a piece of paper."

That seemed like it interested her a lot, "Something written on it?" she asked.

"Nothing. It was blank, but… it smelled."

She pondered for a bit. Then she went to the counter in front of her and checked the paper. She smelled it and smiled. Maybe she liked the smell.

Or maybe not.

"Did you know there are certain substances like milk and lemon juice, that are reactive to heat?"

I think I recall something like that from a novel. Oh! I knew what she talked about! "A hidden message?"

She nodded and put the paper on top of the electric vitroceramic hobs, and lighted them on. We stared at the paper for a couple minutes and after a while, its started to get darker, but only in certain areas. As if it was magic, a text started to appear and in less that 5 minutes it was complete.

"Zeus, due to his position, and Aphrodite, to his vanity, like to be on top. Ares will check on his wife looking up at her so Time won't be checked. Hermes will fly in the Sky over the Ocean," she read aloud.

"What in the world...?" I asked.

"It's a riddle," she explained, "Those are the Greek gods and for what I can see, it talks about positioning them higher or lower."

"Then, Zeus and Aphrodite on top, Ares below and Hermes up too?" I tried.

She shook her head, frowning "No… If Hermes was up too, it would have been mentioned with Zeus…"

My headache was coming back, so I decided to place the dishes we had in their place in the table. The Earth in the 3rd orbit and Neptune in the 8th. There were still 4 dishes left. Mars, Venus, Mercury and Uranus. Earth, Satun, Neptune and Jupiter were done. Oh, wait. Jupiter… what did it remind me of?

I had to left the thought to go due to my headache and I pressed my hands on my forehead. Looking forward, I could see the posters. Oh, I haven't looked at the other one. Is that a rainbow?

I got closer to it. It wasn't exactly a rainbow. It had a thick line with the 7 colors starting with red and finishing with violet.

"It's the frequency spectrum or color spectrum. It's used in Astronomy to notice movement in celestial objects," Beta said.

"So if they catch it with different colors over time, it has moved?" I asked.

"Exactly. If the color moves towards the red, its getting further away and closer if it goes towards violet."

"He, so when Mars goes further away due to its orbit, we see the red planet redder?" I joked.

He just nodded, but didn't laugh. Meh, not my fault if the guy lacks a sense of humor.

Aaaanyway, so color means distance somehow… red is the furthest… violet the closest… and… 7 colors… oh, like in the fridge… Wait, that can't be a coincidence…

I went back to the fridge, and after getting Mu out of the way, I took the bottles out and ordered it like colors starting with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. And… now what?

"You know, I think there is something odd in the riddle," Delta chose THAT very moment to distract me.

"Well, it's a riddle, what did you expect," I replied.

"I mean, why Time, Sky and Ocean and in capitals?" she pointed out.

"Maybe they represent something…?" I guessed.

"Well, we know what the other represent. Zeus and the others were Greek gods and…" But that, that she had just said rang a bell from earlier.

Zeus… and Jupiter. That was it! They are the same!

"Maybe those 3 represent gods too," she was still following her line of reasoning, "Ocean can be Poseidon, god of the sea."

"The blue sea that is also Neptune…" I thought aloud.

"Yes. The Sky should be Uranus and the Time is Cronus."

"Was Cronus known by another name?" I asked.

"Saturn by the Romans," she answered

Bingo. 7 gods that are 7 planets ordered in a position somewhere… I glanced at the open empty refrigerator… wait, it's not empty.

I got my hand inside and reached to the furthest place inside. There was a… dish! It was white so I didn't see it at first. I left it on the counter next to the pot.

So anyway… 2 posters, one with planets, the other showing distances. A table representing the solar system with the sun in the middle and the planets at difference DISTANCES… this starts making sense. Just a bit more…

So, distance from the sun. Mercury is the closest, so violet for him. Neptune the furthest, so violet for him, and the rest as they were situated. Now the only thing left was solving the riddle…

"Got it!" Delta exclaimed.

Now, that's some timing. I explained my reasoning and she explained hers.

Zeus (Jupiter) and Aphrodite (Venus) on top. Since Ares is looking up to Aphrodite and doesn't notice the time, Cronus. It means Ares (Mars) is in the middle and Cronus (Saturn) down. Then Hermes (Mercury) and the Sky (Uranus) are as up as they can be without topping Zeus. So they go in the middle and Oceanus (Neptune) down with Saturn.

If we change the names for the colors we have associated…

Upper self: Green and Indigo

Middle self: Blue, Violet, and Orange

Lower self: Yellow and Red

I rearranged the bottles and the moment I inserted the last one, we could hear a click in below the fridge.

"Oh! Maybe the freezer can be opened now!" Mu exclaimed.

I guess she had been fighting with the freezer for some time now and wanted it to open already.

"Do the honors then," I told her.

She opened it with no resistance. Inside there were 3 dishes (finally) and a dirty ice cube. It was about 5 inches across and long. The frozen water must have been dirty before cooling enough to solidify, as the inside couldn't be seen. I let it there, though, and took the dishes to the table. One was red so it was easy to guess it was Mars, 4th orbit. 3 dishes left, Mercury, Venus and Uranus. Not difficult. The gray one should be Mercury (good thing the poster had images of the planets a bit bigger so I could see how they looked.) I put Mercury in the 1st orbit. The white dish should be Venus, being the brightest of them all, so to the 2nd orbit. The one left was the only one left on the table, so it had to be Uranus by default. To the 7th orbit.

Just like with the fridge, a clicking sound was heard and I saw the sun dish being lifted from the table. Looking below it, it seemed that a part of the table had lifted it. Beta took the dish so I could check what had lifted. It was a small cylinder. It could be detached from the table and opened in the middle. Inside there was a plastic piece. It was like a smaller cylinder, about 1 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter. It had a hole on one of the sides, with a helical ridge inside the hole. That seems to mean it wasn't complete.

Which meant we needed another piece. But where to take it from? I went back to recheck the kitchen area. Things have gone well till then. It was a matter of time before we found the piece left.

And then we would get out of the room.

And THEN we would get some answers from Delta.

Then I had a very bad feeling and my stomach turned. I blinked and an image of Delta on the floor on a puddle of blood filled my vision. I blinked and almost screamed, to see the vision fade and Delta calmly heating the pot.

What the hell was…

Wait, what is Mu doing with... Oh, not again!

I took her from the arm, which was holding the jar, "Could you stop grabbing the damn jar until we've finished the puzzle, young lady?" I took the jar from her.

She didn't look annoyed at me this time, in fact, she looked kinda dizzy. She stayed with her arm in the same pose as if still grabbing the jar and slowly turned to look at me. I stared at her blinking slowly. Did she forget to take her nap or something?

Whatever, I'm not her nanny.

Still with the jar in my hand, I turned to see Delta busy with the pot, "What are you doing?"

"I thought there could be something hidden inside the ice, and I was right!" she claimed, taking something thin and long from the pot.

I was going to take it from her, but before that, I let the jar on the counter. I realized I had put it again in the circle with the mysterious message.

I cocked my head. A jar of Mars…

An image of the fridge filled my vision. It lasted a second, but it was enough. I dashed towards the fridge, opened it and took the blue bottle. I opened it and filled the jar, still in its place. After a couple second of filling the jar, a click was heard and I was able to open the now unlocked drawer under it.

There was a small thin object. Cylindrical, like the metallic part of a screwdriver, but cut in half along the length. Then I glanced at Delta holding something identical.

Next step was obvious, so I joined the 2 parts and together, with the piece I've found in the table. The long and thin part of it had the exact thickness of the hole in the poster wall. So there I went and inserted it. I only needed to turn it a bit clockwise for it to fit perfect.

The result was a button on the wall. It was asking to be pushed, so I did. An electronic voice announced the unlocking of the room.

 _Speaker: Hephaestus door unlocked._

And then the ground moved next to the wall. A square of about 4 feet wide opened to show stairs going down. So there was an exit after all, phew.

I smiled at Delta, who clapped her hands once, smiling. Beta wasn't smiling, though. He was looking behind Delta. I followed his gaze, just to see Mu breaking the jar.

I rolled eyes, "There you go kid, you happy now?"

But she just stared at the glass shards on the floor. Beta walked towards her and grabbed her arm, "Let's go!"

She seemed to awaken to those words and looked at Beta surprised, "Oh! Yes, Brother!"

Delta and I looked at the passing next to us and down the stairs, then at each other.

Delta shrugged and I did the same, muttering "Crazy kid…"

We went downstairs and as I was doing so, I checked the dial.

2:18.

Well, it could be worse I guess.

From up the stairs, we could see it was a huge storeroom of a couple dozen feet deep (or high, depending if the point of view was from inside). From the point the stairs ended, approximately in the middle of the room, and forward, the floor was different from the part that was behind the stairs. It had rails in a grid-like patterns. There were a lot of metal crates, about 50, and each was at least 2 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Some of them had more crates on top. The more crates were on top, the less there were. Like, from the 50 crates, about 30 have another crate on top and from those 30, about 17 had a second crate on top and so on. There was only one crate that had 5 crates on top of it and it almost reached the ceiling.

And about the ceiling, it had fluorescent lights on it, but there was a small place in it with a red light beating. It was exactly in the furthest place from the end of the stairs we had come from. I narrowed my eyes and I was able to check it from where I was. It was a card reader and next to it, the ceiling had a black square. Looking at the "hole" we had come from, I could assume that was the exit. However, there was no way of reaching it unless we could fly.

Hum, maybe with the crates? But even if we could move them, we would need a card to open the exit.

Also, since the stairs were transparent (or with enough holes to see through) I could see beneath and behind them, in the zone of the floor that was plain and without rails nor crates.

"Those tanks and machines… It has to be here… finally!" I heard Delta exclaim before running down the stairs.

I followed her to the plain floor area. She was acting… different than normal. As if she was… anxious, maybe?

In that area, there was a couple huge tanks that had a water symbol and some huge pipes going up to the ceiling. There was also a console and some cupboards.

I saw Delta checking place after place in a frenzy and I could hear her saying, "Not here… not this either… where on earth is it?"

"What are you looking for?" I inquired.

"The air system! It should be in the storeroom area!" she snapped at me.

I gave a step back, "Ok, hold on a second. How do you know it should be here?" I wasn't going to let her drive this train at her pace, "What is it? What do you know? Isn't it time you tell us?"

She seemed like she had just used all her energy. Her face was pale and her arms hung to her sides. Also, she didn't seem to have heard a single word i had said.

She shook her head, "I was wrong… If the settings are not correct and the layout is different, then maybe we are really on Mars… was I… really wrong?"

I groped her shoulder and shook it a bit to get her attention, "I have no idea of what are you talking about. Where did you think we were?"

She finally looked at me, "The testing site in Nevada…" her voice sounded defeated, "But I was too late… They probably mutated the virus already… Oh…" she lastly made a surprised face, but suddenly went back to her previous mood.

"Testing site? Virus?" I understood even less, but she seemed like wanting to explain a bit, so I shut up.

She took a deep breath, then started explaining, "I was employed for a large company that wanted to collaborate in space travel. There was a test site in Nevada that was a replica of a space station that will be on Mars. I was in charge of creating the… realism,so to speak. That's how I came up with Celerity, or also called, Virus C."

"I don't understand what a virus and a Mars mission could have in common," I thought aloud.

She answered, "The testing site. You see, Mars doesn't have the same gravity as the Earth, mainly due to it's less mass. It's about a third of its gravity; 2,6 less exactly. So, how could we recreate the same effect in the Earth? How could you make a place where the gravity is a third of what the planet obliges? The task was almost impossible. Then I thought of a, at first sight, good idea. If it's too much of a problem changing the gravity in a place for the people, let's change the perception of the people for the place."

"Can you do that?" I asked, impressed.

"Well, seems like the test was a success and the mission happened, cause here we are, huh?" She said sadly. "In any case. I developed a drug that acted like a virus. The effect would be altering the processing speed of the brain. If we could accelerate it enough, an object falling at normal speed, wouldn't it look like falling slower, as if there was lower gravity?"

It seemed reasonable to me, "Yes, but… Can the brain do that? Wouldn't that harm it?"

"Not if just used for a small period of time, just enough for any test that astronauts would need. After the time was up, they would be injected with the antiviral and done! However…"

I kept quiet. I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

"I was really proud of my research and what I had created, but still… The creating, testing, delivery… Everything was so quick that I thought there might be second effects or consequences we hadn't realized yet. So I run test after test until I found it."

"What did you find?"

"A way to turn Celerity into the most dreadful bioweapon the world had ever seen. Initially, it transferred itself by air, so the moment it would be turned into a weapon, it would infect anyone. Everyone. Anywhere and everywhere."

"Well, but who would change the virus? No one has anything to win by that," I reasoned.

She sighed, looking even more defeated than before, "There is a group of people, who provided most of the funds for the project. I doubt you've heard of them. They are called… Free the Soul."

That name… sounded really familiar.

"I believe they hacked into my research data diary and accessed the last entry, where I posted my latest discovery about Celerity and how it can be turned into a mass destruction weapon. Now they know how to mutate the virus. I came to the test facility to take Celerity out of their reach. I destroyed all traces of the virus and all files so the Celerity used in the facility should be the last trace of it. I entered the place and mixed with the people who were going to undergo the test for the mars mission, expecting to get to this place and the Virus. I knew the layout of the place so I knew where the air system would be. The plan was to recover it and destroy it, but… it's too late now."

"The moment you heard about forcing us to play this game, telling us we were to be punished… didn't all that crazy stuff make you think over your plan? What kind of test could this possibly be?"

She looked down, "I really thought this was part of the test, to introduce a stress factor and that you were all playing along, thinking you already thought this was the test mission, for the sake of the test, but… you really weren't faking your abduction, it seems."

I was going to reply with an energetic OF COURSE, but for some reason, it felt wrong. But why? I didn't choose to come here like her, right?

Oh, god, I have the feeling I DID exactly that, but it can't be… ugh, my head.

She looked at me, not very interested, she asked out of respect, not a real concern, "Are you all right?"

"No… my head…"

She remained silent, without motivation.

But pressing my temples, I tried asking her one last thing, "What would the mutated virus do to people? Would it kill them?"

"Yes… and no," she shook her head and sadly smiled, "The changed virus itself wouldn't harm you. With the opposite effect as Celerity, It would make your neural activity slow down. In the end, you lose your mind and it would eventually lead to suicide. You should have seen the tests on animals. Such a deadly virus…"

"Radical 6!" I exclaimed suddenly.

She blinked, "Huh? Radical what? What is that?" she arched a brow, intrigued.

I blinked, "I… don't know…"

I rubbed my temples. Why have I said that? The name just popped in my head. Goddamnit, it hurts like a bitch! My head is going to split open!

"Ugh… look. Right now we have to get out of here. You can search for the virus later," I told her while shaking my head, "Why don't you look around and search for a card? There is a card reader in the ceiling and we'll need one to open the exit."

She just nodded and started looking at the cupboards. I saw her opening a toolbox. Good, doing something will help her to regain her senses a bit. I looked back to the stairs, to look at Beta and Mu. He was on top of the stairs staring intently at the crates. Mu was some stairs higher, lying on her back. Was she sleeping?

I went towards him and before I could ask him, he spoke, "I got it figured out. Sigma, go down there and do what I tell you."

"What? Why?"

"Because one has to remain up here to show the way to the one moving the crates," he explained. Well, it didn't explain much, though, but he continued, "If we don't move them in a special order and way, they'll get stuck and so will we."

"All right, I'll do it." I was about to head back down when I remembered, "What about her?" I pointed at the girl lying behind him.

"She must be tired, let her be," he said, not seeming very concerned.

I shrugged and approached the crates. I kneeled and looked under them. They had wheels that made them able to move along the rails. I stood up again and tried moving them. Their wheels seemed like being well greased as they weren't difficult to move.

Beta guided me and I moved the crates, aligning them as he was telling me to until I had positioned all in some sort of stairs, although each step was huge. It wasn't a hard task, but it took time.

Beta joined me in looking at the crates in their final position. Then, Delta approached us with a card key. I felt relief. We were finally ready to go.

However, the conversation Delta and I had earlier was still on my head and moreover, the feeling that I had chosen to go to that place.

Of course, that would contradict what Zero told us all. And of being abducted. Only a crazy guy would come willingly to such a dangerous place.

Unless he was the guy creating the game.

That would make me Zero.

Pffft… HAH! Yeah, sure.

I shook my head in ironic amusement. Beta looked behind us towards the place where Mu was still lying on.

"Go ahead and open the door, we'll go in a moment," he told us.

I nodded and started climbing the crates, with Delta following. When we reached the top, we were really high and not with a good standing. Delta didn't dare to look down. Instead, she checked the card reader and, taking the card she had found, passed it throughout the slot. It made a big sound before we heard the following electronic voice.

 _Speaker: Ares room unlocked_

"Yeah!" I exclaimed.

And a panel of the ceiling opened. I peeked outside. It was a hallway, then down again at Delta.

"This way!"

But she didn't move, "What about the others?"

"I don't see them there," I replied

She shook her head, "No, I mean Beta and Mu," she explained.

"Oh, they must be… eh?" I looked down but they weren't climbing the craters. Looking around the room I didn't spot them either, "That's odd… BETA! MU! Come up here, we're getting out!"

"Where are they?" asked Delta. As if I should know.

She didn't even dare to look down. She was probably scared of heights.

"Get out and wait for me there. I'll look for them. Maybe Mu went back to the kitchen," I told the young woman.

She frowned "Why would she do that?"

I shrugged. Not my fault she was a crazy kid.

I helped her get out and with great care, get down the crate's mountain. I looked everywhere in the room till I had no other choice but to believe they couldn't be there. I went up the stairs to check the kitchen. I didn't need to look much further.

The air had turned thicker. Was it due to lack of oxygen? I wouldn't rule it out, we were trapped in outer space. Whatever the reason, my breathing was something I had trouble with at that moment.

Might be the fact they weren't moving. Or the fact they were lying on the floor. Or the fact there was a puddle of a dark red fluid under them.

What the fuck…

I felt my knees weak and I let myself kneel next to them. Mu was the closest to me. I really didn't want to do it, but… I had to. With a trembling hand, I touched her neck.

Nothing.

But, what was I expecting?

Then, I suddenly saw a glass shard stabbing my chest and I jerked backward. With a troubled breath, I rubbed my chest, over my shirt, but there was no wound. Had I just imagined it? But it was so real…

Whatever the reason, I was snapped out of the initial shock. I didn't know how were they dead, but I wouldn't stay there to learn it the bad way.

I ran back towards the basement and then up the crates, looking behind me from time to time to see if someone followed me, but nobody did.

I joined Delta in the hallway. It was a long big room. The door of the basement was on the floor next to a wall with 2 doors, however, judging for the orientation of the doors and the room we had escaped from, those seemed like doors that other groups should have to pass to get there. In the opposite wall was another door, bigger than the others with a merman holding a trident.

Delta looked at me worried, "Where are the rest?" but then I noticed one of the doors opened, although only a crack, so it wasn't easily spotted.

I didn't want to speak about the other 2. So instead of answering, I asked her, "Did you open that door?"

But my elusive reply confirmed what she suspected, "They are dead, right?"

"How could you tell?" I confronted her.

"Because I could see beyond the opened door," she pointed towards the door slightly opened. I got next to it and opened it wide.

Three bodies covered in blood were lying on the floor. Lambda, Theta, and Omega. I clenched my teeth and looked away at the door, where Delta was waiting, "God! Why are they dead too?"

"You know why," she replied, with an icy stare, "They committed suicide, most surely," she added.

"Radical 6!" I exclaimed again.

"What did you say?" another voice joined us from outside the door.

Phi and Iota had just gotten outside from the other door and were walking towards us. Phi looked especially livid. Or troubled. Or… I don't really know what to read in her face.

"What did you just say?" she repeated.

"I…" I didn't know what to tell her.

But she wouldn't have any of that. She grabbed me by the collar. "What did you say, Sigma?"

I looked at her crazy expression and said it. "Radical 6…"

She let me go as if she suddenly understood and then her face underwent a "radical" transformation, to surprise, and then to horror.

"Oh no… I… remember…" she said.

"What?"

I looked at Iota, looking for an answer to such behavior and then I realized he had taken off his helmet. The guy (yeah, it was a guy) couldn't be much older than me and his face was distorted by horror.

Yeah, he had peeked at the room full of corpses. And yeah, when you haven't seen a corpse before in your life, seeing a huge room with 3 feels like it was full of them.

"What happened there? Who did that?" Iota asked.

"They were infected by a virus and killed themselves" Phi replied, she had gone back to her more composed form, but looked really sad and regretful, "We didn't stop it in time…"

How did she know? What had she just now remembered? What did she know? Why everyone knows something and I'm the only one that…

But my inner rant was disturbed by Iota, who was confronting Phi. It looked like she knowing something added to Iota's suspicious of who might be Zero. They began a discussion that heated up more and more until she decided to quit it and get away from him and he grabbed her by the wrist, demanding more answers. Just when I thought it was time to kick this guy's ass, Delta appeared behind him and hit him in the base of the head with his opened hand, in a chop way.

He fell like a sack of beans. I kneeled beside him and checked his pulse. He was alive. But the fucker was out cold.

Damn, Delta, for a doctor, you know how to defend your… what the hell? "Hey, what are you doing?" I demanded.

Delta had sneaked behind Phi, using the confusion of the argument and the surprise of her appearance to stop Iota, and was holding her from behind in a pose that looked painful for Phi. Phi was kneeling, with an arm stretched backward and up, in a very odd and painful pose while with another hand, Delta was pressing a screwdriver on her lumbar area. Phi was groaning and looked really in pain. Was it so painful to have your arm twisted like that?

"It doesn't look that painful, right?" Delta asked, reading my face and oddly calm, "This is how the Inquisition tortured, but they used both arms. However, I'm using my right hand for something worse."

Then she leaned on Phi, next to her ear, "Do you know the spot I'm pressing Phi? Is the central nerve of the base of your spine. I just need to press 3 more millimeters for making u beg to be killed so you'll stop feeling pain."

What the... why had she gone suddenly psycho on us? "Delta… why are you doing this? Let her go!"

She ignored my request, and smiled, "You see, Sigma. I can't let her go. In fact, none of you are going to go anywhere."

A shiver run down my spine.

She continued, "The virus has mutated and it's already killing. We might be already infected. So we can't go out. It's as easy as that. Please check your bracelet and the time left."

I did it.

0:09

9 minutes, how ironic.

She continued, "I know well you all want to escape, but I won't let the virus escape in any of us."

"You're not making any sense!" I objected, "You said we were on Mars and that the original virus was already used in the test so anything they might have done to it, happened long ago!"

She gave me an apologetic smile, "Sorry, I lied. I wanted to test you and see if you could be trusted. The layout of the place changed, that's all."

"Then we're…"

"Maybe. The layout changing is a possible reason, but I could be wrong. It doesn't matter. We all die here and this place will be purged. The virus will die without a living host to propagate it!"

"But it propagated through the air! You said that!" I complained. I wanted to gain some time to think and save Phi, but time was running short.

"It does, but after some time with no human to duplicate inside, it dies. It's thanks to its propagating speed that the virus can extend itself… and why is so deadly as well."

"You're wrong…" Phi managed to say

"Huh?" Delta seemed interested but didn't let her go

"Even if we die here, it's too late. You underestimated the virus. No matter what we do from now on, we already lost. The virus got out. The reactors will explode and humanity will face extinction… We failed."

"What?" both Delta and I looked at Phi and then, my brain was full of images and memories

I fall on the floor in agony as my head felt like it was being split open. Unknown to me, that distracted Delta enough to lose grip on Phi, who managed to get away. She pursued her, but I managed to focus enough to get up and tackle her. With my arms, in a bear hug, locked her arms to her sides.

Losing any hope she had left to correct what she considered her mistake, Delta became hysteric and started to make a fuss.

And then the hand with the screwdriver hit my left bracelet and an electronic sound came from it. She stopped moving and looked down at my bracelets holding her waist.

She seemed to have remembered the same I was remembering.

* * *

 _ZERO: your bracelets won't get off and will explode if you try getting out with them on or remove by force or damage_

* * *

Oh, crap.

A white light made my word go black.

My body felt numb, was I dead? No, I could feel a surface under me, it was trembling, as if I was on a car, but it was way bigger than one. I couldn't move but I felt my body, except my arms, like the feeling u get when you sleep on top of them.

I couldn't open my eyes, but I could hear a voice, "Six of us are… dead. Counting myself, there are only three left."

She said something else. Couldn't focus well enough to hear it. Then there she was again, "…not just these 6, all of them… All six billion…"

My head hurt and I couldn't listen anymore. Then, a big sound, like someone hitting an iron wall or letting something fall on the floor.

Then the voice again, "Shit, why am I even reporting to them… they will die anyway. Shit… we failed… SHIT!"

Will they die? Who? Can't we save them? But she said, we… failed…

The virus escaped!

Yeah… now I remember.

Everything.

I'm sorry Phi.

I'm sorry Akane.

I'm sorry, young me. Seems like your destiny is still being me, armless and half blind.

Sigh… maybe we'll make it in the next jump.

Yeah, maybe, with another choice.

Maybe…

I left my mind drift back to the black word it had woken from and I started floating into the nothingness.

END (bad future)

* * *

 _Author's note: And so we reached the usual future that led to the events of VLR. Still not the last ending you'll be seeing here._


	5. Chapter 5

ZERO ESCAPE: Last hope. Ch5

 _Author's note: Aaaaand another parallel history. Sigma is bored of chosing the kitchen door, so lets change the choice here! Enjoy._

 _By the way, stuff in italics later on will be memories/flashbacks that Sigma suddenly gets, who knows where from..._

 _Edited with the help of a beta reader._

* * *

 _Summary of repeating events for this chapter:_

 _Sigma wakes up in a cell. From MARS? Voice threatens to kill unless escape. Solves the puzzle and gets out._

 _Join 8 more people: big guy Omega, labcoat Delta, overly suspicious Phi, moto suit Iota, old mole lady Theta, kid Mu, bald businessman Beta and asocial Lambda._

 _Their kidnapper Zero speaks about the nonary game. One exit. Explosive bracelets. 9 hours._

Bracelet dial shows choices for doors. 2 choices: Heracles door and Hermes door. Chooses Heracles alongside Mu and Lambda. Omega, Theta, Beta, Phi, Iota, and Delta chose Hermes.

Shower room solved!

5 hours left...

Everything becomes blurry...

* * *

Before I could do anything, Lambda grabbed the handle of the right door and entered without a word. I looked at Mu, who sticking her tongue out at me, entered the other room at the left.

I could choose which door to go through but I couldn't decide. Lambda looked unstable and unreliable enough to be needing some checking on him, but at the same time, Mu gave me a very bad feeling. I should be checking on her too. So, what would it be? Lambda or Mu?

My headache got worse, I went to press the dial but I felt a deep pain on my arms when I approached my finger to the Eta symbol. It gave me such a bad feeling that I carefully pressed the other one, Delta. I guess I was to follow Lambda, so I opened the right door.

Fresh air welcomed me as I stepped outside on the grass.

Wait, outside? Grass?

Looking around I could see the huge place where I was. It looked like a garden and the walls and ceiling formed a huge dome of gray metal that reflected the light of a giant focal in the top of the ceiling. Under it, in the middle of the greenhouse was a circular lake and there were a lot of trees here and there. I could also see many different plants.

The only thing out of place was a few metallic boxes not far from the door in front of the one we used to enter. It seemed like a mixture of a ventilation system and an air purification system. Well, if the plants were the ones renovating most of the oxygen in the base, it made sense of it to be there and not in another place, like a storage room or water tank place.

Erm… and why did I think of such a place to be suitable as well?

Brain, stop bringing up random stuff and focus on what u need to do right now!

Lambda was checking the door as well, so I joined him.

"What do we need to get out?"

He almost jumped from my question, "I don't know!" he looked at me like he was crazy.

Oh boy, I don't know who is worse, this guy or that kid. Even if she killed me and Delta…

Woah, where did that came from?

I shook my head and just checked the door. The lock had a little box that looked like a card reader.

"So we need a key card to open the door."

"Huh? Oh, Yeah, it seems so…" he looked at the door's lock, nodding.

What the hell have you been checking here? The air system? Ok, buddy, I'm not gonna do all the work here.

I pushed him far away from the door, "Look, I don't really care what kind of attitude problem you have. But you're gonna help me getting out of here. If you expect me to do all the work, forget it!"

"But I have to-" he started complaining and then shut up. I raised a brow and waited, but he remained quiet.

"Riiight, now start looking for the key card over there while I look here," I pointed to the other side of the dome.

His face got all red, "You can't order me around! Why can't I check this part?"

"I have the feeling after I finish checking that part, I'll still find you on this spot. So move it already!" right then, I felt inspired, "Do you want me to go call lil Mu?"

The little color he had in his face disappeared, "No! No need. I'll go!"

Good thing he was too scared to think straight. All doors get closed and can't be opened from inside until you finish the puzzle. I couldn't call for Mu even if I wanted.

And I so didn't want it anyway.

And why is he so scared of her anyway? I mean, apart from the creepy talk, and the creepy brother and the stabbing in the heart…

Ok, what was that again?

Damn it, Sigma! Focus on what you have to do! Look for the key card and get the hell out of here.

There was a wooden cabinet in the nearby I saw there were a plastic fishing rod, an odd-shaped long metallic device, and a folder. There were 2 papers in it. One was a leaflet, very colorful, almost looking like being done by a kid. It said:  
Grow your treasure! Plant, water and grow your key ticket to your desired place.

A travel ticket?

No, wait.

Oh… I see, Zero smartass. Key ticket. To get out maybe? That had to mean the keycard to unlock the door. Yep.

The other paper only had some odd inscriptions, like a riddle:

1= Love of Venus  
2= Stripped Mars  
3= Dotted Mercury  
4= Zigzag Jupiter  
5= Plains of Earth

Shit, what the hell does this mean? Venus is the roman goddess of Love, ok. Aaaand… Jupiter of Thunder, which might be the reason of the zigzag, but the rest… Maybe the god of war was a stripper? Scattered messenger god? Sightseeing on Earth? Yeah, of course! Earth tourism from outer space!

Riiiight…

I'll check it out later, first let's see what this machine is…

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Wow! It made a loud beeping sound when my hand got close to the tip. Or maybe just my…

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Right. It was the bracelet. This thing is a metal detector. So… What? Do I have to go treasure hunting or something? Oh! Grow your treasure… hum… I'll carry this… and this too. I bet there are fishes in the lake up there. Oh, Lambda is already there. Good.

I approached the center of the Greenhouse where Lambda was checking the lake. It was round, about 8 feet in diameter, and not very deep.

Surprisingly, there wasn't a fish in sight; instead, there were 5 small balls at the bottom. Looking at them closely I could see they had a circular shape and all of them were yellow with different black marks. They had a little tip with a small hole, which I guessed the hook of the fishing rods were for.

That was easy to understand. Next would be… "Did you found anything there?"

"Only 5 watering cans in a wooden cabinet over there," he replied.

5 "fish", 5 cans… oh! And 5 parts in the riddle. I'm starting to figure out this mess. I handed Lambda the fishing rod. "There! Go fish!"

He looked confused at me. Sigh, I should have known not to make a joke with this freak. "Fish those balls, will you? It's a part of the puzzle to get out."

"What do I need that for then?" he said, smirking. "Only an idiot would do it the hard way when you can just get on your knees, get your arm in the water and UUUGHHGJHAAAACK!"

Holy crap, he had just gotten a finger in the water and I could see his body almost jumping back from the shock!

That Zero bastard! He had the lake electrified to make us do it the hard way! Phew, good thing I didn't think of trying that…

Oh shit, Lambda!

Oh wait… I don't care!

Sigh… yeah… ok… fine…

I rushed to him. He wasn't moving. I checked his pulse and breathing. There was.  
He probably had just fainted, but still he scared the hell out of me.

I left him there to rest and went away to check the watering cans.

What? It was something I had to do! I wasn't scared of that water or anything!

Now far away there was the cabinet and the cans. Each colored different. They were purple, indigo, blue, green and yellow. Almost a complete rainbow.  
However, the riddle didn't talk about colors, but gods.

Ugh, my head…

I was seeing 2 posters, one with planets, the other showing distances. And colors indicating distances…

Wait, that never happened! Where did I see that from? What's wrong with my head?

And what did that had to do with the god's riddles?

…

Well, Venus is also a planet… and the colors matched with most of the ones in the cans…

By that, I could guess that from Mercury to Venus, colors should be the rainbow from violet to yellow. Maybe?

Ok, I'll follow that. There is no other clue I can follow anyway.

So now the riddle goes like this:

1= Love Indigo  
2= Stripped Green  
3= Dotted Violet  
4= Zigzag Yellow  
5= Plain Blue

Hum… still 2/3 of it is unknown. Maybe the 2 tools I have here will tell me the other 2 hints. Let's try that.

I took the fishing rod and approached the electric lake. I wasn't nervous, ok? Just a little apprehensive.

Lambda was still sleeping.

Ok, let's give this a try.

It wasn't easy. The hole in each ball was very small and it wasn't easy to aim an object that moves in the water.

I managed to do it, but it took me so much time that I was afraid the nonary game would have ended already.

I checked the watch.

2:45

Son of a bitch! We're running out of time!

I checked the balls. They were encapsulated in plastic to insulate them from the water and electricity, but it wasn't difficult to take it off to see them better. They were marbled sized and the marks were different in each one. One had black lines, like a Zebra, others had dots, a zigzag, a heart and the last one had no marks. It was Plain…

Oh! Lines, dots, zigzag, heart, and plain. Heart and love were similar and lines and stripes too!

Ok, that took care of the second part. Now I had the… seeds? And I knew what to water each with. Left was…

I looked at the metal detector.

Knowing where to plant them?

I put myself to it and looked with the detector each part of the ground.

The first reaction was not far away. It made 3 beeps. Hum, 3… maybe that was the number meaning. Next place beeping twice confirmed my theory. I found the three other places and placed each seed, watering them with the can according to each one.

After finishing and waiting for a full minute, I heard a ding and rushed towards the lake. The bottom was draining the water and once the lake was empty, I could see something I wasn't aware before. It was a transparent card lying in the bottom of the lake and covered in insulated plastic.

I quickly took it and carried it towards the exit. After a bit of struggling with my nails, the cover came off and I was able to read it. The familiar electronic sound felt really good to my nervous mind, almost as if it relaxed me.

Demeter door, unlocked.

I went back to the empty lake and moved Lambda. After a bit of shaking, he opened his eyes and quickly jumped to his feet. I quickly explained to him what had happened but that didn't calm him down at all.

I had to push him out of the room towards a similar hall to the one after the Heracles room. There were 2 doors as expected and our dials showed spinning symbols again. Z and A. Zeta and Alfa, which one?

I took a deep breath, expecting some kind of inspiration.

* * *

In the meanwhile, Lambda had decided and had his hand already in the right doorknob. So he had chosen the A. It was Apollo the god showed in the carving metal plate of the door while Zeus was in the other one. It was obvious I was gonna chose the one he wouldn't.

And I pressed my dial.

I heard some voices greeting him, but I lost interest in him and entered the left door. If luck was on my side, I wouldn't have to be with more freaks anytime soon.

"Sigma!"

I looked in front of me. Phi and Iota were looking at me, surprised. Well, Phi was surprised, I couldn't see Iota's face. We exchanged information about the rooms we had been to. I also let them know about my suspicions on Mu and Lambda.

"Well, I guess it's to be expected, considering our situation," she dismissed my doubts so easily that it made me angry, looking for another way to convince her.

"How about Delta?"

"What about her?" she asked back

"Well, she knows something about this place! She said so!" I insisted

"What? When did she? I don't remember anything of the sort!" she looked confused.

"Of course, you weren't with us in the kitchen." I replied

"Neither were you!" She exclaimed, "Didn't you say you were paired only with Mu and Lambda so far?"

"Of course, I… Wait a sec…" I was getting confused. I had been in the shower/gym and in the garden. However, I have the feeling I had been in the kitchen with Delta.

But that was just impossible.

I shook my head, "Look, forget it. My head hurts. It's not making much sense."

"If you are done wasting time, I suggest we get out of this place now," Iota scolded us.

I checked the time.

1:35

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Ok, calm down.

"Have you checked anything here already before I got here?" I asked them, looking around. It looked like some sort of control room.

"No, we had just arrived as well," Phi replied

I realized I was still holding the door, so I just advanced, letting it close and lock as usual. I was going to start inspecting the room when there was an electronic voice on the speakers,  
Magnetic field generator offline, please, connect again in order to unlock door.

"Magnetic field?" I asked

"It makes sense. Mars hasn't a magnetic field like Earth. If we're in a Mars base, it's obvious we need a magnetic field to protect against the sunwind." Phi explained.

"Don't tell me you're buying it, that we're on Mars," I objected with some doubts.

She didn't reply to that, though. "Let's search this place and connect the field so we can leave," I suggested.

She nodded. I didn't even bother to look at Iota. It was tiresome talking with him. Looking around, we could see that the walls were metallic and full of dials, buttons, displays and screens, though most of them off. The room was quite big, without windows and divided into 2 sections by a glass wall. The other section didn't seem to have a door to enter but I could see through the glass a metallic machine the size of a truck and the shape of an octopus, with huge wires acting like tentacles and a secondary machine, that looked like a cylinder with narrow wires.

Next to the glass wall was a diagram with wires, levers, and numbers. On top of it was a label: Power on. Another part that picked my interest was a little flashcard. I put it in my pocket, you never know in which puzzle it might be needed afterward. Then I joined Phi, who had found 2 things. A display with colored diodes and dials and a keyboard to do something with it and 2 screens, one with the label magnetic field generator control label on it.

"That's what we need to operate."

"Bad news, they are all switched off, the power is not working," she replied.

"On my side they were too, but there was also a display with wires that seemed to connect the power," I signaled to it

"You should have tried to activate it as soon as u saw it. I'm always telling you don't need my permission to- huh?"

"What are you talking ab-" I got as frozen as she had.

I DO recall her telling me that, but… when? Where?

"Impossible… I've never seen you before… Don't make me waste time, old man!" she finally snapped at me, angry.

"Old man?"

The hell? I'm not old! I've got everything young and fresh, no illnesses, no prosthetic limbs…

Holy crap, I had the worst déjà vu feeling ever!

I shuddered violently.

"I'm sorry, let's try to get out of this place," she apologized.

I agreed and checked the wires to connect the power. They were weird. They had numbers and levers. I wasn't sure how to operate them.

Then, Iota approached me with a folder and some papers, "This should help," he passed me one of the papers. It had a string of numbers with an 'A' after each them.

"Is that electrical intensity? Ampere?" Phi pointed out, touching the numbers.

I nodded a bit unsure and started using the levers. As I moved them, the numbers in the bottom changed. After a while of trial and error, I managed to put them in a position that got me the numbers I had in the paper. We heard a low rumble and some lights could be seen in the screens that were dead a bit before.

I looked at the screen of the magnetic field generator, but it asked for an 11 alternate digit code that none of us knew, so I checked the next screen over that seemed to have a game of some sort on the screen. However, I couldn't find any lever or button to use on it.

I sighed, "How the hell can I operate this thing?"

"Hum…" Phi was also pondering it.

"It's a touch screen, right? What else do you need?" Iota said

Phi and I looked at each other, surprised, "How did you know that?" she asked him

He shrugged, "Wasn't it obvious?"

To hell with him, let's solve this part of the puzzle. It seemed like we needed to join the dots in order to make a closed circuit, but the lines had to pass for several numbers in order to get the last number to equal the addition of the numbers selected. Piece of cake!

Piece of shit that made me waste 15 minutes of trial and error.

"Wow, you really suck at this," Iota mocked me.

"Screw you, I have a code now," I checked the word appearing in the screen. It didn't have 11 digits. It wasn't even a word.

LCRCT

"Maybe it's just part of the code," suggested Phi

I shrugged and looked around. There should be other puzzles to solve in the room.

There! The display with colored lights, dials, and keyboard.

"No use," said Iota, "that keyboard doesn't work, it needs a key card. We haven't found one, right?"

Phi shook her head, but I just took the card from my pocket, "I found it before."

"Then say it so!" complaint Phi, snatching the card and inserting it in a slot of the keyboard. She started using it and after a bit, all the diodes lighted on, "Hum…" Phi kept hitting keys, but there wasn't anything else happening.

"Maybe we need to use the dials," I suggested

"Be my guest!" Phi left the seat and I replaced her. It wasn't easy to use, moving the dials lighted on and off some diodes and others.

"This goes nowhere if I don't know what to draw in here," I commented, frustrated on not knowing what to do.

"Try this," Iota offered another piece of paper from the folder.

"Next time say earlier there were more hints around!" complaint Phi with a scowl, but Iota didn't seem to notice her.

Even with what I had to draw I needed almost 30 minutes to do it correctly. When I finished, Phi noticed the screen of before changing the word to EETIIY.

"So…. LCRCTEETIIY," I entered it and of course…

Wrong password.

"I guessed so," I sounded defeated, but we had checked the whole room and there was nothing else to use. That had to be the password! I tried EETIIYLCRCT. But…

Wrong password.

"Oh come on! How didn't I saw it earlier!" Phi looked angry with herself.

I glanced at her, "What is it?"

She explained it, "It asked for an alternate code. You have to alternate the letters. What do you get?"

I thought it for a sec. The first letter from one word was E, first from the second word was L, second from the first E, ...

ELECTRICITY

Zeus god of Thunder. Oh man, the Irony.

I entered the password after some facepalming at our idiocy and of course.

Magnetic field restored, Zeus door unlocked.

"Well, that's that," I announced, getting up and going towards the door, followed by Phi and Iota.

It was another hallway, bigger than the others. There was another door not far at the right of the door we had gotten out from (Our left). In front of that wall was another door, way bigger. It had a big metal carving of a merman.

"Neptune, god of the Sea and ships. And our way out!" announced Phi.

I checked the dial in my bracelet.

0:27

There wasn't much time left.

"Should we wait for the rest to finish their rooms?" I asked.

But they looked deep in thought. Or at least, Phi looked that way.

Seriously dude, take off that helmet already!

Phi was about to say something when the floor below her moved and she fall backward. It was a trapdoor!

Beta's face peeked from the hole at us. He didn't say a word to us and told someone behind him, "This way."

He got out and Mu followed him. She looked surprised to see us, "Oh, so many?"

I didn't even try to guess what she meant by that.

"Are you two alone?" Iota asked them

They glanced at each other before answering. That was odd and suspicious.

"Brother and I were the only ones doing this last room," she said smiling.

I had the feeling she was saying the truth, but at the same time, the way she said it made me shiver. Beta explained they had just made the storeroom after doing the kitchen. Phi and Iota listened to his robotic speech, but I was still worried. I couldn't explain why, but I was scared. There was something off.

"Wait! Beta and Delta did with us the Mercury room," Phi had realized something.

"That means the kitchen puzzle must have been done with Delta as well," I concluded.

"Did she go to another room after that?" theorized Iota, "Omega and Theta went to Apollo's room. Maybe she joined them…"

They didn't confirm his theory, but Mu was smiling in a way that froze my blood.

And I saw it.

It was as if I was there. A body lying on the floor. A puddle of blood. Mu in front of the corpse.

I blinked. Mu was grinning straight at me. I shivered, "Mu… you… killed her."

That erased her smile and looked at me seriously. Phi and Iota turned to me.

"Are you an idiot? There is no way a kid like that had killed Delta!" Phi scolded me.

She was right and besides, what I had just seen… couldn't be real. I had no explanation that backed my theory, but even so. I was sure it had happened that way. My silence didn't felt good to Phi, as she kept complaining.

"What reason did she have to kill her, huh?"

And I saw the answer. The scene before me shifted.

 _"This wasn't how this should work…"  
"What do you mean? How's this supposed to work? Better question, how do you know the way it's supposed to work? Why? Is it possible that you are…"  
"That's not true! I would never risk lives this way! I would have never helped in this kind of way to test…"  
"Test what? What do you know?"_

"She knew something about this game. That's why they killed her," I stated.

I have no idea how, but I just knew it.

"Kill who?"

Just then Omega and Theta came from the other door. It was him who asked, alarmed. However, another thing alarmed me.

"Wasn't Lambda with you?"

They looked at each other. Then the lady talked to Omega, "I told you we should have waited."

"I'm not gonna wait to die cause he just forgot something in the garden," he replied to her with haste.

"You mean Delta isn't with you?" Phi asked them.

"With us? Why?"

But I wasn't listening to them. Lambda didn't enter the room. I saw him about to enter but…

"Lambda didn't finish entering the room you were in, did he?" I wasn't really asking, just stating my conclusions.

"We only had time to tell him hi before he excused to get something he had forgotten in the Garden," replied Omega.

"Rude kid didn't even greet us…" whined Theta.

"What was in the garden to go back for it, I wonder," Iota pondered aloud.

And I knew.

 _"The air system! It should be in the storeroom area!"  
"Ok, hold on a second. How do you know it should be here? What is it? What do you know? Isn't it time you tell us?"_

"The air system is in the garden, not in the storeroom as she thought," I explained to the group of 6 next to me.

They weren't following of course. They hadn't talked with Delta as I had.

But I never did! Then why do I remember doing it?

"What does the air system has to do with anything?" asked Omega.

He didn't know, but I did.

 _"But I was too late… They probably mutated the virus already"  
"Testing site? Virus?"  
"I was employed for a large company that wanted to collaborate in space travel. There was a test site in Nevada that was a replica of a space station in Mars. I was in charge of creating the… realism. So to speak. That's how I came up with Celerity, or also called, Virus C"  
"I don't understand what a virus and a Mars mission could have in common."  
"The testing site. You see, Mars doesn't have the same gravity as the Earth, mainly due to it's less mass. It's about 2,6 less of its gravity. So, how could we recreate the same effect in the Earth. How could you make a place where the gravity is a third of what the planet obliges? The task was almost impossible. Then I thought of a, at first sight, good idea. If it's too much of a problem changing the gravity in a place for the people, let's change the perception of the people for the place."  
"Can you do that?"  
"Well, seems like the test was a success and the mission happened, cause here we are, huh?" She said sadly. "In any case. I developed a drug that acted like a virus. The effect would the altering the speed of the process of the brain. If we could accelerate it enough, an object falling at normal speed, wouldn't it look like falling slower, as if there was lower gravity?"  
"Yes, but… Can the brain do that? Wouldn't that harm it?"  
"Not if just used for a small period of time, just enough for any test that astronauts needed. After the time was done, they would be injected with the antiviral and done! However, I was really proud of my research and what I had created but still… The creating, testing, delivery… Everything was so quick that I thought there might be second effects or consequences we hadn't realized yet. So I run test after test until I found it."  
"What did you find?"  
"A way to turn Celerity into the most dreadful bioweapon the world had ever seen. Initially, it transferred itself by air, so the moment it turned into a weapon, it would infect anyone. Everyone."_

"The virus was transmitted by the air system. It was supposed to change the process speed in our brain to make us believe we were in Mars, but it could be altered to be made a deadly bioweapon who would kill billions of people," I explained to my astonished cellmates

"Then we're not in Mars, as I thought- Wait, a virus?" Iota exclaimed

"A… Virus…" Phi looked pale. Did she know too?

"A bioweapon… here? But who…?" Theta asked, fear in every word. I didn't find odd that they were buying my story so easily.

But as to who was behind… yeah. I knew that too. Don't know how, I swear to god I don't!

 _"There is a group of people, who provided most of the funds of the project. I doubt you've heard of them. They are called… Free the Soul. I believe they hacked into my research data diary and accessed the last entry, where I posted my latest discovery about Celerity and how it can be turned into a mass destruction weapon. Now they know how to mutate the virus."  
_  
"A terrorist group under the leader of Free the soul," I answered Theta's question.

"Free the soul… His leader is called Brother!"

I looked at Phi but it wasn't her who had said so. It was Theta!

"How do you- Oh my god…"

A shiver run down my spine as I looked at Beta. My blood froze as I saw his twisted smile for the first time.

"I have no idea how do you know so much. But that won't matter anymore. Now you should worry about her." he nodded towards Phi.

I heard her gasping and, as I turned at her, I saw Mu, who had sneaked from behind her jumping on her, like a deadly backpack, pressing a shard of glass on her neck.  
I got scared for a second as I saw the glass covered in blood, but Phi didn't have a wound. Then, that blood…

Delta.

Yeah, well. We were in deep shit already.

"Sigma, forget about me. You must stop Lambda!" exclaimed Phi.

"It's a bit late to worry about that piece of garbage," stated Mu, pressing the blade a bit more on Phi's neck.

Damn, she was right! How much time had passed since I left him? Almost 3 hours ago. There was no way he didn't do it already, and with the virus transmitting through the air, stopping it was impossible now.

Even so. I couldn't try. I had to.

And despite all that. I couldn't leave Phi behind.

Phi was furious at my indecision to do something, "You should have remembered already Sigma. This is what we decided to come here for. Stop the virus! Change the future!"

Did we decide to come here? To change the future?

God, I'm so confused. What should I do?

But then everything changed. Omega threw himself on Beta, "Go Sigma! Stop that lambdabastard!"

I had no choice I dashed towards the door.

But it wouldn't be that easy.

"Oh no you won't!" I heard Mu scream.

In mere seconds, I was at the door and felt something jumping on me and it had happened with Phi. But I had a second to prepare and managed to stop the arm holding the blade. But I couldn't use all my strength against her as her other arm was strangling my neck on a weird way.

I struggled, spin and hit the fall several times, trying to get her off me. In the crazy movement, I glanced at the others. Omega and Iota were fighting Beta while the old lady was with Phi, who was on the floor. I couldn't tell, as fast as I moved, if she was all right. Judging Mu, she probably wasn't.

That enraged me and I tackled the wall head on, in the hope that the impact might make her let go of the glass.

Surprisingly, it happened.

Thankfully, the bumping didn't cause anyone to get stabbed.

Unfortunately, there was something I had forgotten. But I recalled it with the sparkling sound I heard from Mu's right bracelet. The very arm I had hit the wall because it had the shard of glass.

I had hit the arm, which meant I had hit the bracelet too.

Hum… that wasn't good. I remembered that part.

 _"Your bracelets won't get off and will explode if you try getting out with them on or remove by force or damage"_

Both Mu and I stared at the damaged bracelet of her, mere inches from both our faces.

Oh, crap.

The white light made my word go black.

Was everything useless? Even after exposing almost everything, the future didn't change.

What choice went wrong?

Maybe If I had followed Lambda earlier.

Yeah, maybe.

The darkness engulfed me and I started floating into the nothingness.

END (bracelet)

* * *

 _Author's note: Nope, not the last chapter. But rejoice! The true end is the only one left! re._


	6. Chapter 6

ZERO ESCAPE: Last hope. Ch6

 _Author's note: This is it, ladies and gentlemen, final chapter. As so, I'm not gonna post a summary and then what's different, but the whole storyline from the begining, seeing this is the correct path that should have been chosen from the begining thanks to past storyline events that warns main character from deviating from this path and ending... as he had ended in previous chapter._

 _If even so you rather just read what's new, then it should start at the middle of the document more or less..._

 _I'll use_ _ **Bold writing**_ _for stuff he remembers from previous timelines._

 _And why not, all this universe and characters belong to it's creators._

 _Edited with the help of a beta reader._

* * *

I was having a weird nightmare. An Egyptian queen with pink hair was pursuing me holding a cleaver. As soon as I dodged her, a lion with 2 heads joined her and started launching bombs from his opened jaws at me. Suddenly I realized I was wearing a woman's swimsuit.

And then I woke up. With my head still dizzy, I looked around. Just one glance was enough to realize that, whatever horrible nightmare I was having, it would have been better if I hadn't woken up.

My name is Sigma. I'm your average college student, trying to get my Ph degree. One Christmas day, I was coming back from college when white smoke filled my car. I guess that's when I was abducted because I don't remember anything. It felt as if several days had passed but I couldn't remember anything from then. Maybe my nightmare had something to do with it. I couldn't tell. I got up still dizzy, my head killing me and by body really light. It felt as if I was high or something. Not that I'd know anything about that.

Really.

Anyway. Looking around confirmed my suspicion. I was locked up in a cell-like room. There was a small desk with a couple drawers and a chair, a bed with no sheets and a little place where… Was I supposed to do toilet functions? There was also a sink with a mirror, which suddenly gave me the chills and I stepped away from it. I couldn't tell why.

I stumped with the wall on my back and glancing at it, I looked through the small round window. I could see the outside. It was desert like, but with a red tint to it. Maybe it was due to the sunset. I looked a bit more through it while I played with my fingers on the surface of the glass. Moving my hands or fingers at random had always helped me to ease my nervousness. But that time it didn't help much.

Avoiding eye contact with the shadow in the mirror, I got close to the door. It looked like solid steel with no handle. I pushed and slammed my fists into it, but it was no use. However, I did notice something odd. Both my forearms were half covered starting from the wrist by a weird looking metal device. Closer to the left wrist, it ended in a watch-like machine, whose dial was off. In both sides, it had carved the Greek letter S. A Sigma, how appropriate. I turned my arm and checked it all. There was no opening. I tried forcing it open, but I had as much luck with that than with the door.

"Just what the hell is going on…" I laid my forehead on the metal door, trying to ease a growing headache, and cursed, asking for an explanation.

As if I got heard, the speaker next to the door that I haven't noticed till then gave me a startle. It was a digitalized voice. I couldn't even tell if it was a guy or a girl.

"Welcome to mars station nr 9, prisoner Sigma. Be noticed that, for your crimes, you've been sentence to attend the ultimate survival game. Be honored and thankful, since that attendance is the only thing delaying and maybe cancelling your death. Still, only the wise will be worthy and in 9 minutes, you will not."

"The hell?"

I stared at the speaker for some seconds until I heard a little beeping sound in my left wrist. The Dial was on and showed a countdown. 8:59, 8:58,… and so on. I stared at it for a while, but that only worsened my headache. I recall what the robotic voice had said. Survival. Death. 9 minutes.

I had no idea of what was going on, but I had the feeling I had to get out in order to know and since a countdown never meant anything good, I guessed I only had 9 minutes to do it.

Well, now 8.

7:59

7:58

Stop looking the damn device and think! How do I get out of here?

I looked at the speaker at the right side of the door. Below it there was a grey (like everything in the cell) metallic box with a slot that looked like the ones used in buses time ago, before the electronic public transport cards expire all the transport carton cards. I guessed a card was needed to open the door. I looked across the room. Maybe the card was hidden somewhere.

I checked the time. 6 minutes and a half left. Crap!

I went directly to the drawers at the desk. I sat on the chair to get a better access and inspect on it whatever I might find within the drawers. The first drawer was stuck. No matter how much I tried, so I gave up on it and tried the second. There was a folder with a paper in it. I gave a quick look but there was no card in it. While I did that, my legs gave a weird sound under the desk. It seemed my knee was rubbing onto something odd behind the desk. I looked it up and saw a little card pasted with duck tape. I quickly got and went towards the lock.

"Fuck!"

The slot was too big for it. Whatever that card was for, it wasn't for this. So I just put it in my pocket. On the third and last drawer I found a tech device the size of a book. The screen was off. I tried tapping it with my fingers, but it looked not powered. With a grunt I sat again on the chair. Then the speakers surprised me again.

"5 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."

"Oh fuck!"

I got up with a jump and rechecked the desk; there was nothing else on it. I looked at the toilet thingy, but there was nothing there either. I quickly looked at the bed and as fast as I could check the pillow and mattress, there was nothing.

"4 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."

"I'm trying, damn it!"

I went back to the desk and took the device again. I turned it and saw a little slot, then remembered the tiny card in my pocket and rushed to put it. It seemed to take me ages, even if it were just mere seconds. The sweaty hands didn't help much either.

The screen lightened. It asked for a 4-letter password. The tactile screen had a keypad, but surprisingly, there were Greek letters.

"Great, that helps a lot!" I grunted. I desperately attacked the screen with my fingers trying combinations of letters, but it was no use. I needed a code, a key or something that could help figuring what should I input. Then I saw the folder. I read the paper. Surprisingly, there was only one thing written on it.

Hell

"Could it be?" I imputed the word in the tablet, but it didn't work. Then I realized the H in Greek wasn't really an H. That word couldn't be the password.

"3 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."

I panicked. I didn't know what the message meant. I pulled my messy black hair with both hands and stomped my forehead into the desk in frustration. I stayed like that a full minute. I know because…

"2 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate room."

… that.

That was it. I was going to die.

"Raaaaaargh!" I yelled as hard as I could and suddenly, my headache intensified and an image flashed in my head. It was the round window. I had no idea what that was or meant, but I run towards it and pasted my face on it, trying to look for a signal outside, breathing heavily against the glass. I saw the landscape and then I recalled the first audio message.

"No way I'm in mars… Right?"

"1 minute till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."

My hopes shattered. The only hope I had found was of no use. I closed my eyes and laid my forehead against the glass. The cold helped with the headache, but not with the mortal situation. I exhaled slowly, opened my eyes and gave a step back. Then I saw that my breath had made the glass foggy in an area. I blinked.

There was something else.

The foggy area receded until it disappeared, so I exhaled again and I could see it good. It was a Sigma letter that someone had drawn on the glass. Then I realized I had done that with my fingers at the beginning.

And then I knew.

I got the tablet and inputted the letters, Alpha, Delta, Epsilon, Sigma. The screen flashed with a green light.

Of course, ADES. Hades was the Greek hell. It was so obvious I could punch myself. But I had no time for that. In fact, the dial showed a number lower than 10. Furtunately, the device opened like a chocolate box and inside was the card I needed. Or so I hoped.

I dashed towards the door

"5 seconds till cyanide gas exposure. 4... 3…"

* * *

I inserted the card, it gave a beeping sound and the door opened. I got out, ending on my knees on the floor. The door closed behind me. I breathed with difficulty while I was kneeling. Then I heard someone clapping his hands in front of me. I looked up and saw some people staring back at me. The one clapping his hands looked amused at me, then he gave some steps towards me and offered his hand.

"About time you got out, man. I almost thought we would end up being just us 8."

Looking at the rest, I counted them. Including him, they were 8. I guess that made 9 people if you counted me, of course. I looked at his hand, not very sure of his real intentions, but it was clear he was in a similar situation, judging for the metal covering his thick forearms. I took his hand and I didn't even need to make an effort to get up. He just flexed his huge biceps and lifted me off the ground as if I weighed nothing. And last time I checked, I weighed about 200 pounds.

However, the man holding my hand was huge. Probably as tall as me but outweighed me by at least 50 pounds. And he was no shy about it. He was wearing a white tank top that fitted his torso like a second skin and some baggy black pants that ended in military green boots. He had clear blue eyes and dark long hair tied in a ponytail at the base of his neck, with some uncombed bangs of hair falling over his face. My eyes went back to his buff arms and then I noticed the symbol on his armband bracelet (lets call it bracelet for short) was an U upside down with the edges turned outwards. An Omega.

I saw him checking his bracelet dial, smirking, "Seems like you'll be the last to join us."

I checked my dial too and saw the countdown was in 0 and then it was off again. Then I looked behind me. I had gotten out from a door that was on the same wall where other 20 doors were. I could guess the rest of the people gathered in front of me had done the very same. Then I noticed. 20 doors and only 9 people outside. Did that mean that 11 people were…?

No way… "What the hell is this? Why are we here?" Nobody replied, "And where is here?"

Again no reply. I was going to press it when a woman with glasses and a labcoat shrugged, showing me both palms, as if saying it couldn't be helped. I saw a triangle on the side of her bracelets. A Delta letter.

"We're the same, we don't know more than you do," she explained.

A short white haired girl dressed in a short skirt and a long coat with no sleeves glared at me. The light reflex shined on her bracelet where I saw a curved line carved. A Phi letter

"Just shut up already! Geez, you piss me off," she spouted at me.

"Hey, what the hell!"

The doctor-looking woman coughed, "Please calm down. I'm sure we'll soon be informed of our situation. There is no need for hostility."

The glasses woman tried to calm down the situation but we all ignored her efforts, except someone wearing a leather motorist suit. He or she (I'll go with a He, due to lack of curves) was still wearing the moto helmet on.

We couldn't tell if he was looking at her but his voice sounded directed to her earlier comment, "Don't bother. Do you think we can be calmed with just that? Have you realized our situation?"

The helmet muffled a bit his voice, but I could tell he wasn't too old. He might even be my age. His bracelet had a straight-line symbol, an Iota letter.

A tall and thin old woman wearing a very elaborated flashy pink hair, lots of makeup, sunglasses and really wide long skirt used her cane to stomp the floor and make us all look at her.

"This is absolutely intolerable! I've never been made to wait in my entire life. I demand an explanation right now!" She barked. Her nose and mouth wrinkled as if she smelled something bad.

"Come on, obasan. If you stress too much, your heart will suffer. That's not good at your age!" a little girl told her while she grinned.

Wait, a kid here too?

"O-obasan? Inpudence! How dare you, little punk…" She trembled in rage, the hands showed next to the metallic bracelets white from grabbing her cane with all the strength she had. Those bracelets showed a circle with a line inside. The Theta letter.

The kid started laughing but both the laughter and the old woman's rage were halteded by a bald man in his thirties, hitting the kid on top of her head.

"Don't be rude to your elders!" he admonished her

"Ouch… big brother… that's mean!" she complained. Rubbing her black hair combed in 2 long braids. She was wearing a Chullo hat, those Peruan's knitted hats that had earflaps and whose long 2 laces matched the length of her braids. She wore also blue overalls and a red t-shirt. She couldn't be more than 10 years old and her bracelets looked huge on her, covering all her forearms, but still not loose enough to take it off sliding her hands. They had an M on them. A Mu letter.

The bald man giving her a speech about being polite and referred by her as her big brother wore a perfectly tailored suit and I just noticed that even when he hit her, his serious face expression didn't change, like a robot. What a creep.

The bracelets are shown under the suit only showed the letter for a moment, when he hit her. It was a B. The Beta letter.

A sad looking blond man was the only one not having spoken a word. Maybe that's what made me notice him, how ironic. He looked lost in thoughts and was staring at the floor with no interest whatsoever. He was wearing a black hoodie with sleeves rolled so his bracelets weren't bothering him. They had a triangle on them, but with the base not completed. A Lambda letter.

I was trapped with this bunch of weirdoes. I glanced around. It was a big room in a thick T-like shape. On my back were the rows of doors. In front of me there were 2 big doors with a different carving on each one. There were no windows to be seen.

Suddenly, everyone's attentions were grabbed by the electronic voice I had heard before in the room. Good, maybe now I'd get some answers.

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the ultimate survival game. The nonary game!"

Before I could wonder why that game's name seemed to run a bit of chill down my spine, I heard a yelping sound from the woman in the long dress. The makeup didn't hide the fact she was scared. She knew something.

But I couldn't question her since the voice didn't wait.

"You can refer to me as Zero the second, or simply Zero, the gamemaster of the nonary game. The reason you're here is simple. Punishment for your horrible crimes."

That made most of us to shout back at the voice, but it ignored us.

"Don't try to deny your guilt. However, you've got a chance to escape with your life. Right now, you're inside of a locked compound that has only one exit. That exit connects with the ship that can bring you home. You must search for that exit. That won't be enough, though. You'll need the blessings of the gods so you get out in one piece. Without enough blessings, your bracelets won't get off and will explode if you try getting out with them on or remove by force or damage. A wrong door will have the same effect. However, that doesn't mean you can take your time. All the air inside the compound will be gone in exactly 9 hours. I'll be eagerly waiting to know who survives…"

We all started talking at the same time. Most of us with indignity, especially the old woman. We were confused and with a reason. What crimes? What game?

"This is stupid, I'm not playing by that zerojerk's rules"

"This is unacceptable! I demand to be released immediately!"

"Will be true that these things have bombs?"

The big guy approached the white-haired girl, "Hey you."

"I have a name, you know?"

"Which is…?"

"I'm not telling my name a suspicious guy I just met."

"Whatever."

"We should introduce ourselves. It's difficult to talk if we don't know our names," the glasses woman said to us. I pondered if that was a safe thing to do.

"If one of us is Zero, we would be giving him too much information about us," objected the white haired girl.

"Oh, man! Will you stop acting so paranoid already, Phi?" I couldn't help a bit of snapping at her. I mean, why was she so hostile with people she just met?

She opened her eyes wide, "How did you…?"

But the hulk patted my back "Good idea dude! We can call each other by the Greek letter in our metallic stuff… Whatever they are called."

"Bracelets?" I suggested.

"Ok, that. I'll be Omega then and by that, I mean to be your END if you get on my bad side, you hear me, baldy?" he poked the suit guy on his chest. I hadn't even realized till now that they had been having an argument earlier.

Great, he's the violent type. Sigh... I revised the bracelet's symbols again until I had memorized them. One thing I've always been proud of was my memory. And it surely helped in exams.

I looked at Phi. For some reason, it felt as if I had known her before, but at the same time, I was sure I hadn't met her before I was abducted. When I called her name before, I mean, what we were being called now, it felt too natural. Was it possible for her real name to be Phi, same as I was Sigma? And how the hell did I know that at that time?

It made as much sense as the feeling that I was having of forgetting something important. I hated feelings like that and they irritated me to no end.

"So? What is this about?" I asked, "A survival game?"

"Do-don't ask me! How should I know?" replied Lambda. It was the first time I heard him talk. He sure was a nervous guy.

"Blessing of the gods? Interesting! I'll kick their blessing out of them!" threatened Omega with a sneer.

"How can you take it so slightly? This is too dangerous!" Delta looked about to cry but her glasses reflected the light somehow and hide her expression. Then she glanced towards the dial on her bracelet. "Everyone! Look at your dial!"

I did as she said. The dial was on and showed several things. I stared at it and my vision became a bit blurry, like dozing of a bit. My headache worsened for a bit and I felt more like floating than ever.

I suddenly opened my eyes, just to see an image in my head. It was my bracelet and it had the Eta symbol. I blinked and my head felt about to split in half. I rubbed my eyelids until a little hand grabbed my shirt and pulled a bit. It was Mu. She smiled at me and I smiled back.

"Have you chosen already, Mr. Sigma?" she asked

"Chosen what?"

"On your dial you have to select a door, see?" she showed me her dial. It showed a Greek symbol, Eta. I looked at the rest. All of them were looking at me, waiting. When had they decided to go along with this? Even the old lady had stopped complaining. Checking my bracelet dial, there were 2 symbols rotating, an eta and an epsilon. The dial had no buttons so I was about to rub it to check when another painful sensation made me close my eyes again. Another sight appeared in my head.

 **It was Phi and she said something,** **"Actually, yeah, you can choose the symbol if u do it carefully."**

I shook my head. What the hell was that? I glanced at Phi, but she was not close at all and looking in the opposite direction. Had she just spoken to me?

I looked back at the screen and checked the spinning symbols. For some reason, The Epsilon irritated me, as if I had seen it enough, so I carefully pressed the screen in the Eta, where it stopped. On top of it, I could see a timer 8:52:45 doing the general countdown.

Ok, I had chosen the symbol… and?

I looked around, "So…. What about the symbol we chose?"

"Isn't it obvious?" replied the old lady "It's the choice of the door. That!" She used the cane to point at the left door. "Represents a drawing of the god Hermes, I suppose you can notice the wings and the caduceus. And that other one is the god of strength, Heracles." She pointed to the other one.

"Don't be a smartass now, you had to touch the engravings to notice that." Complained the shy Lambda, although he didn't dare to make eye contact with her while saying so, and he even jumped a bit when she stomped her cane on the ground. I could almost hear a snarl from her.

"Let me tell you, young man, that my eyesight is not what it used to be, if it wasn't for my sunglasses, I couldn't even open my eyes!"

"Why is that so?" I asked, but she just shook her head, not willing to say anything else

"So the ones with Eta (H) will be going through the Heracles door and the ones with an Epsilon through the Hermes door." Stated Beta, stern as always.

"Aw, big brother, you have the door wrong!" complaint Mu, after checking Beta's bracelet.

"I see. Then behave till we get together again. You know what you have to do."

"Of course!" She smiled, and without waiting, got close to the right door. The door opened and she entered. The door closed behind her.

There was something weird about that girl and although just thinking about her made me feel scared, I had all my instincts telling me to follow her. I ran after her, but before I could reach the door, Phi grabbed my arm.

I looked at her with surprise.

"Do you really have an Eta?" she asked

I rechecked the dial. Yeah. I showed it to her. She stared at it for a moment

"Weird, it wasn't that before..." she looked confused.

"Huh? Before, when?" Now I was the one confused.

She stared at me and then, she bite her thumb. She finally shook her head "No, that didn't happen, right?"

I didn't get what she was talking about but she just let me go and turned around "Just don't be reckless, ok?" she said in a low voice

What? I was going to press the issue when Lambda passed next to me and opened the door. I gave a quick glance at Phi and, turning around, I followed Lambda.

* * *

I heard the door locking behind me. I looked at it for a couple minutes, but no one was following, so I supposed they would be going through the other door.

Lambda and Mu were looking around so I did the same. It was a restroom. There were benches, shower stalls and toilet stalls on both sides of the room and in front, another door. I opened it and peeked inside. It had machines and weights like a gym. I guess that fit the room's name. At the far end, there was another door, locked. I guessed it was the exit.

I checked that area first. There were 2 treadmills and a couple bicycles. The bench press was loaded with just a long bar, but no discs. Those were ordered on a rack with weights that went from ½ pounds to 20. On the bench, there was a folder with a paper on it. The paper had a diagram drawn. 4 cubes with numbers inside. On the other side of the paper, there was another drawing. There were 4 vertical lines That bifurcated and joined (or not) with their neighbor line until they reached the bottom of the page and on each ending, there was a number there were numbers too on top of the 4 lines and what looked like a handle before the first bifurcation of each 4 first lines. That sounded familiar, I've seen puzzles like those, you have to decide where to move the handle to let the quantity flow to one side or the other so the quantity at the end of the line was correct. For example, if u have one line the bifurcates and has at the top 20 and on each ending 10, u know u must leave the valve looking down so half of each quantity goes to each side. If it was 20 on the left and 0 on the right, you know the valve must look to the left. Easy. But when there are more lines that tangle with each other, it gets more complicated. This one was easy and at the same time not. Easy cause there was only 4 valves. Difficult cause half the numbers were gone, although there were spaces that suggested if a number had 2 digits or whatever. Well, with just a bit of time I was sure to solve it. What I didn't know is what for.

There were other machines there but I notice when checking on them, that the slot where the metal piece that secured the weights was gone in all of them. I wondered if it was important. On the wall, there was a poster with the human anatomy on it. It had letters written in different places, like A on the left arm or F in the ankle. I didn't give it much thought and went back to the shower area. Lambda was checking the toilet stalls while Mu was checking something on the floor. She seemed to be struggling to get something, but there was a metallic fence on the drain.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"There is something behind this, I can't reach!" She explained

I looked at it, but the holes of the fence were too small for a hand to get through, even one small as Mu's. About a foot down I could see the shapes of something round, like shiny marbles.

"There is no way we can reach them without hands…" I thought aloud, the holes seem just big enough for the marbles to pass… hum…

I left her to thought that up and I joined Lambda in the stalls, he seemed to be struggling too.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" he screamed.

I gave a step back. Holy shit, what's with him? I haven't noticed him much till now, but he really seemed a very nervous person. Maybe the pressure of being trapped was too much for him.

"Are you trying to open the toilet?" I tried to sound friendly, but he got defensive.

"Why? I can't?" he sounded defiant.

"Ooook, whatever you want…" I backed off towards Mu and her drain problem.

She was on the shower stalls trying to open them, but no water came from them.

"Weren't you trying to get the marbles?" I asked her, surprised how she had given up already.

"I am!" She assured me "I only have to get water to fill the drain and the marbles should float to the surface. They are shiny, but I bet they are made of plastic."

"Good idea! But…"

"Yeah, there is no water…" she sounded defeated

"And we can't get it from the toilets, Lambda has been trying to open them but…" I added.

"What's that?" she looked at the folder under my arm

"I found it in the other room," I showed her and explained about the puzzle drawing.

"Oh! So maybe if u solve the puzzle we'll know of the combination of valves to make the water flow?" She said like it was obvious.

Damn, Why hadn't I thought of that already. I didn't notice before that the shower stalls were 4. I patted her head and put myself to it. It wasn't easy so it took me a while. Just before I was done, she asked me bored.

"Are you done yet? If we can't get water that way, we can always kill that dead weight on the toilet and use his blood instead…"

Wait, what?

I looked at her with my brows touching the top of my forehead. She started laughing.

"Hahahahaaaaa, you should have seen your face…"

Creeeeeeeepy joke… damn kid.

I finished and got the combination of valves and we used in the showers, as soon as the last valve was on, water started flowing. Their individual drain was stuck, it seems, as it soon started to overflow and reach the main drain. 5 minutes later, the small spheres were at hand.

"Heh, they are the size of eyeballs…" Mu mentioned

Why would anyone compare anything to that? What's with this creepy kid?

Jeez….

Anyway, they were indeed made of plastic and could be opened. Inside they have some pieces of paper. 5 papers:

A=10

B=15

C=20

D=15

E=5

Run= 30 minutes

Right there, Mu stopped peeking over my shoulder and glanced at where Lambda was in a stall.

"Hey you, why don't you go to the treadmill and start running, Just having to be 30 minutes more is more than enough."

I was impressed at her being so pushy.

"You stupid brat! Why should I do what you say?" Lambda replied with his voice almost trembling.

He had a point. But Mu just looked at the ceiling, as in deep thought, then shrugged and went inside the toilet stall, closing the door behind her. I could hear some noises. Then Lambda's voice.

"Ok, ok, I'll do it!"

He sounded terrified. And when he went out of the stall, he looked so pale that he seemed almost like a dead man. Mu went out after him, smiling innocently.

"What did you tell him?" I asked her astonished.

She looked at me confused

"Huh? Oh ,just the truth. If he's doing nothing why is he even alive? I mean, he's gonna be useless? then go die, old man…"

I couldn't believe such words were coming from someone like her. But she didn't seem like she cared.

"So, what's next?" She asked me as if nothing had just happened.

I shook my head. "I have a little idea on what to do with the new numbers, but first, I want to check if the other side of the paper is useful."

"You mean the number referring to the toilet stalls?" she asked as if it was obvious.

It wasn't obvious, damn it!

"You already figured it out?" I asked surprised

"Well, one side of the paper showed 4 things in that wall," she pointed to the wall where the shower stalls were, "So it's easy to deduce that the other side of the paper refers to 4 things in front of the 4 mentioned on the other side," she pointed at the toilet stalls.

"It… makes sense…"

I went towards the first toilet and checked the place. What the hell!

There is no toilet paper!

Ok, now seriously, there was nothing aside of the toilet and the string on top to flush. Since the toilet was unmovable, maybe it was the string the one I had to use. Maybe flushing the number of times specified in the squares of the paper?

I did so. 4 in the first one…. 6 in the second one… 2 in the third one… And the last one, 8!

Just when I finished, the toilet opened. I heard other noises from the other stalls. A quick peek confirmed it. Now they were all opened.

"Good job, Sigma!" She cheered for me.

I looked at the toilets, attached with cello tape on the inside of the opened sides, there was a metal prong. I immediately knew what was it for. I collected all of them and walked towards the next room over. The water had already stopped flowing on its own, so that what something we didn't need to worry anymore.

Lamda was running on the Treadmill. I checked the timer it had in the panel. It said 16:35. I guess we still have about 14 more minutes to finish the puzzle. Probably with time to spare. I checked the papers again.

A=10

B=15

C=20

D=15

E=5

Run= 30 minutes

And then at the poster on the wall. Yeah, the moment I had seen the ABCD letters in the paper, the poster came to my mind. They had to be connected.

In the poster the A was in the left arm, the B in the chest, the C in the upper leg, the D in the lower leg and the E in the back.

I quickly spotted the machines for biceps, quadriceps, calves and lats. The bench press was the one for chest so the discs will be the ones stating the weight. Yeah, I believed the numbers referred to the weight that should be adjusted. It was the only thing I could think about that made sense. I used the prongs for the weights on each machine and the discs on the bar.

Then everything was ready, except for Lambda, who still needed 5 more minutes to finish. So we waited.

The moment the timer read 30, there was a click coming from the door and we heard an electronic voice from the speakers.

Herakles room unlocked.

"Yay!" Mu jumped from excitement while Lambda just fell to the floor exhausted. I was just eager to get out of there and get away from those 2.

We crossed the door and found a small room with 2 doors. One had the carving of a woman with a cereal plant in her hand. I supposed that was Demeter, goddess of nature. The one on the left was a man holding a hammer and a fire next to him. I could guess he was Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship.

I saw Mu checking her dial and pressing it and from a corner of my eye, I noticed lambda doing the same. I looked at my bracelets; a Delta and an Eta were spinning. The problem was, which one to choose.

Before I could do anything, Lambda grabbed the handle of the right door and entered without a word. I looked at Mu, who sticking her tongue out at me, entered the other room at the left.

I could choose which door to go through but I couldn't decide. Lambda looked unstable and unreliable enough to be needing some checking on him, but at the same time, Mu gave me a very bad feeling. I should be checking on her too. So, what would it be? Lambda or Mu?

* * *

My headache got worse, I went to press the dial but I felt a deep pain on my arms when I approached my finger to the Eta symbol. It gave me such a bad feeling that I carefully pressed the other one, Delta. I guess I was to follow Lambda, so I opened the right door.

Fresh air welcomed me as I stepped outside on the grass.

Wait, outside? Grass?

Looking around I could see the huge place where I was. It looked like a garden and the walls and ceiling formed a huge dome of gray metal that reflected the light of a giant focal in the top of the ceiling. Under it, in the middle of the greenhouse was a circular lake and there were a lot of trees here and there. I could also see many different plants.

The only thing out of place was a few metallic boxes not far from the door in front of the one we used to enter. It seemed like a mixture of a ventilation system and an air purification system. Well, if the plants were the ones renovating most of the oxygen in the base, it made sense of it to be there and not in another place, like a storage room or water tank place.

Erm… and why did I think of such a place to be suitable as well?

Brain, stop bringing up random stuff and focus on what u need to do right now!

Lambda was checking the door as well, so I joined him.

"What do we need to get out?"

He almost jumped from my question, "I don't know!" he looked at me like he was crazy.

Oh boy, I don't know who is worse, this guy or that kid. **Even if she killed me and Delta** …

Woah, where did that came from?

I shook my head and just checked the door. The lock had a little box that looked like a card reader.

"So we need a key card to open the door."

"Huh? Oh, Yeah, it seems so…" he looked at the door's lock, nodding.

What the hell have you been checking here? The air system? Ok, buddy, I'm not gonna do all the work here.

I pushed him far away from the door, "Look, I don't really care what kind of attitude problem you have. But you're gonna help me getting out of here. If you expect me to do all the work, forget it!"

"But I have to-" he started complaining and then shut up. I raised a brow and waited, but he remained quiet.

"Riiight, now start looking for the key card over there while I look here," I pointed to the other side of the dome.

His face got all red, "You can't order me around! Why can't I check this part?"

"I have the feeling after I finish checking that part, I'll still find you on this spot. So move it already!" right then, I felt inspired, "Do you want me to go call lil Mu?"

The little color he had in his face disappeared, "No! No need. I'll go!"

Good thing he was too scared to think straight. All doors get closed and can't be opened from inside until you finish the puzzle. I couldn't call for Mu even if I wanted.

And I so didn't want it anyway.

And why is he so scared of her anyway? I mean, apart from the creepy talk, and the creepy brother and the **stabbing in the heart** …

Ok, what was that again?

Damn it, Sigma! Focus on what you have to do! Look for the key card and get the hell out of here.

There was a wooden cabinet in the nearby I saw there were a plastic fishing rod, an odd-shaped long metallic device, and a folder. There were 2 papers in it. One was a leaflet, very colorful, almost looking like being done by a kid. It said:  
Grow your treasure! Plant, water and grow your key ticket to your desired place.

A travel ticket?

No, wait.

Oh… I see, Zero smartass. Key ticket. To get out maybe? That had to mean the keycard to unlock the door. Yep.

The other paper only had some odd inscriptions, like a riddle:

1= Love of Venus  
2= Stripped Mars  
3= Dotted Mercury  
4= Zigzag Jupiter  
5= Plains of Earth

Shit, what the hell does this mean? Venus is the roman goddess of Love, ok. Aaaand… Jupiter of Thunder, which might be the reason of the zigzag, but the rest… Maybe the god of war was a stripper? Scattered messenger god? Sightseeing on Earth? Yeah, of course! Earth tourism from outer space!

Riiiight…

I'll check it out later, first let's see what this machine is…

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Wow! It made a loud beeping sound when my hand got close to the tip. Or maybe just my…

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP

Right. It was the bracelet. This thing is a metal detector. So… What? Do I have to go treasure hunting or something? Oh! Grow your treasure… hum… I'll carry this… and this too. I bet there are fishes in the lake up there. Oh, Lambda is already there. Good.

I approached the center of the Greenhouse where Lambda was checking the lake. It was round, about 8 feet in diameter, and not very deep.

Surprisingly, there wasn't a fish in sight; instead, there were 5 small balls at the bottom. Looking at them closely I could see they had a circular shape and all of them were yellow with different black marks. They had a little tip with a small hole, which I guessed the hook of the fishing rods were for.

That was easy to understand. Next would be… "Did you found anything there?"

"Only 5 watering cans in a wooden cabinet over there," he replied.

5 "fish", 5 cans… oh! And 5 parts in the riddle. I'm starting to figure out this mess. I handed Lambda the fishing rod, "There! Go fish!"

He looked confused at me. Sigh, I should have known not to make a joke with this freak, "Fish those balls, will you? It's a part of the puzzle to get out."

"What do I need that for then?" he said, smirking. "Only an idiot would do it the hard way when you can just get on your knees, get your arm in the water and UUUGHHGJHAAAACK!"

Holy crap, he had just gotten a finger in the water and I could see his body almost jumping back from the shock!

That Zero bastard! He had the lake electrified to make us do it the hard way! Phew, good thing I didn't think of trying that…

Oh shit, Lambda!

Oh wait… I don't care!

Sigh… yeah… ok… fine…

I rushed to him. He wasn't moving. I checked his pulse and breathing. There was.  
He probably had just fainted, but still he scared the hell out of me.

I left him there to rest and went away to check the watering cans.

What? It was something I had to do! I wasn't scared of that water or anything!

Now far away there was the cabinet and the cans. Each colored different. They were purple, indigo, blue, green and yellow. Almost a complete rainbow.  
However, the riddle didn't talk about colors, but gods.

Ugh, my head…

 **I was seeing 2 posters, one with planets, the other showing distances. And colors indicating distances…**

Wait, that never happened! Where did I see that from? What's wrong with my head?

And what did that had to do with the god's riddles?

…

Well, Venus is also a planet… and the colors matched with most of the ones in the cans…

By that, I could guess that from Mercury to Venus, colors should be the rainbow from violet to yellow. Maybe?

Ok, I'll follow that. There is no other clue I can follow anyway.

So now the riddle goes like this:

1= Love Indigo  
2= Stripped Green  
3= Dotted Violet  
4= Zigzag Yellow  
5= Plain Blue

Hum… still 2/3 of it is unknown. Maybe the 2 tools I have here will tell me the other 2 hints. Let's try that.

I took the fishing rod and approached the electric lake. I wasn't nervous, ok? Just a little apprehensive.

Lambda was still sleeping.

Ok, let's give this a try.

It wasn't easy. The hole in each ball was very small and it wasn't easy to aim an object that moves in the water.

I managed to do it, but it took me so much time that I was afraid the nonary game would have ended already.

I checked the watch.

2:45

Son of a bitch! We're running out of time!

I checked the balls. They were encapsulated in plastic to insulate them from the water and electricity, but it wasn't difficult to take it off to see them better. They were marbled sized and the marks were different in each one. One had black lines, like a Zebra, others had dots, a zigzag, a heart and the last one had no marks. It was Plain…

Oh! Lines, dots, zigzag, heart, and plain. Heart and love were similar and lines and stripes too!

Ok, that took care of the second part. Now I had the… seeds? And I knew what to water each with. Left was…

I looked at the metal detector.

Knowing where to plant them?

I put myself to it and looked with the detector each part of the ground.

The first reaction was not far away. It made 3 beeps. Hum, 3… maybe that was the number meaning. Next place beeping twice confirmed my theory. I found the three other places and placed each seed, watering them with the can according to each one.

After finishing and waiting for a full minute, I heard a ding and rushed towards the lake. The bottom was draining the water and once the lake was empty, I could see something I wasn't aware before. It was a transparent card lying in the bottom of the lake and covered in insulated plastic.

I quickly took it and carried it towards the exit. After a bit of struggling with my nails, the cover came off and I was able to read it. The familiar electronic sound felt really good to my nervous mind, almost as if it relaxed me.

Demeter door, unlocked.

I went back to the empty lake and moved Lambda. After a bit of shaking, he opened his eyes and quickly jumped to his feet. I quickly explained to him what had happened but that didn't calm him down at all.

I had to push him out of the room towards a similar hall to the one after the Heracles room. There were 2 doors as expected and our dials showed spinning symbols again. Z and A. Zeta and Alfa, which one?

I took a deep breath, expecting some kind of inspiration.

 ** _"_ _Go Sigma! Stop that Lambdabastard!"_**

Wow, wait, what was that? Who had said that? Omega? When? I haven't seen him since we separated before the first door! And even so I was sure he had said that.

Oh god, my head is going to kill me. Ok, I wanted some inspiration or signal, this will do for now.

In the meanwhile, Lambda had decided and placed his hand on the right doorknob. So he had chosen the A, Apollo's door. It showed a carving of that god in the metal plate of the door, while Zeus was in the other one. Normally I would have chosen the other door and get away from him at last. But after what I had received, I made up my mind.

* * *

I pressed my dial, Apollo's room, here we go.

I heard some voices greeting him, but I didn't care. He was in the way, so I pushed him, to his surprise, and closed the door after me.

After hearing the locking mechanism, he looked at me furiously, but I ignored him. Right now I needed to keep an eye on him, and in that locked room he wouldn't be able to do as he wanted.

Omega and Theta were in the room already. We started to talk and soon exchanged information on the previous rooms and puzzles. Then, looking around we saw that we were in a hospital room, or an infirmary, I wasn't sure.

Well, we'd have to search this room. Good thing Omega was here. Lambda is just an idiot and... **Theta would probably spend the whole time sitting in any of the chairs that were in the room**.

Surprisingly, she wasn't lazing around; instead she was checking the room, same as Omega. I was glad for the change of attitude in the old bag.

Then I paused, staring at her.

Why did I think she wouldn't help? I could have sworn she would be doing nothing as if I had seen her before lazing around.

But we haven't met before this room. Right?

There was something odd with me, but I had no time to think about it. I had a job to do. I joined them in the search. We didn't have time to sit around.

I looked at the dial on my bracelet. 2:12

Oh well.

The first thing that I noticed was how colorless the room was. Furniture, instruments, walls, floor, and ceiling were all white. That helped to see the only thing with color, apart from the black screens. Those were 4 mannequins sitting on 4 benches next to some beds. But they weren't ordinary beds. There were no mattresses, just a plain surface with some screens on the side. There was a fifth bed and on the 5th bench, there was a medical file. I kept it with me as I kept looking.

Omega was trying to open a locker but wouldn't budge. In any case, it didn't look like it was going to be useful so he stopped and moved on to somewhere else. I checked the counter next to it. It had some cupboards with medicine bottles of different sizes with colored stuff inside. Next to it was a scale, which appeared to be glued to the counter. Or so it seemed when I tried to move it. On one of the scale plates was a scalpel and on the other side a white colored pen, and a needle with a roll of string. Next to it was a little weight, but there was no indication of how much it weighed.

I was still checking it when Omega snatched the file I was holding, "Let me see that…"

I was going to object, but I guessed it was my fault. I cold have checked it before and I left it like that. I saw Omega frowning and glancing at the mannequins, which Theta was checking with her hands while Lambda joined her. I looked at them. They were wearing no clothes and their only difference was the hair on the heads. One was blond, one brunette, one ginger and the last one bald.

Omega gave me the files back, "You do this. I'm not playing doctor with these, they're creepy."

I rolled eyes, "Thanks a lot…" Then proceeded to read the files, "Clinic History:  
6:30 Patient George arrived, 2 anesthetic doses given, ready for transplant.  
6:45 Donor Patrick arrived, 3 anesthetic doses given, ready for transplant.  
6:50 Getting Patrick's left Kidney, 2 0- blood bags placing, closing the opening.  
6:55 Opening right side of Patrick lumbar area and placing the kidney, 4 AB+ blood bags used, closing the opening.  
7:00 Patient Adam arrived, 3 anesthetic doses given, ready for surgery.  
7:05 opening left side of Adam's abdomen, retrieving appendix, 3 0+ blood bags used, closing the opening.  
7:10 Patient Gilbert arrived, highly contagious, 1 vaccine dose injecting.  
Warning: One try only."

I looked at Omega and he grinned, "Told you, playing doctor."

"One try only huh… if we do it wrong we won't be getting out… what hope is there left in this kind of game…" Theta said, sad.

Both Omega and I looked at Theta confused. She looked defeated, sitting in the only empty chair as if one of the 4 mannequins was a dead sibling or something.

"We have to open that door, we must!" Lambda surprised us with the conviction in his voice.

Omega grinned and patted his back, "No worries man, we'll get this door open and we'll get out in no time!"

However, I noticed Lambda had been glancing at the entrance all this time and not the exit. For some reason, I felt as if he didn't want the exit opened, but the one that could let him go back to the garden.

Why was he so focused in that damn place?

"Hey!" Omega halted my thoughts, "We only have one chance, don't fuck it up," he said in a serious tone.

"Heh, Thanks for the pep talk… Ok, first we have to follow the instructions, George arrived the first so he must-"

"Who's George?" Omega interrupted me.

Damn, good question. If we chose the incorrect mannequin, we're fucked. We looked at them carefully as to guess who was who, but there was nothing that could identify them.

"What the fuck? There is no way out? Is this it?" he looked angry and defeated.

"Don't lose hope, there is time left!" I tried to reassure him, but I was trying to do it to myself as well.

"It's useless." A voice said behind me. I turned to see Theta still sitting in the chair, spinning her cane in her hands. "How much time left? 30 minutes, 40?" she asked me, without even looking at my face.

She could have checked herself… or maybe not, being half blind and stuff. I checked my dial. It said 00:52 and so I told her. She shook her head and sighed, "No, that won't do. It won't be enough. This is even worse than last time…"

Why did I have the feeling she wasn't talking about the previous room?

"Hey, cheer up, grandma! We're not dead yet!" Omega said and I nodded. Well, at least, he was looking not as defeated as before but I still noticed his anxiety.

Ok think, there must be something in this room. A hint to identify these dolls…  
I looked again at the places I checked before. Again, I ended at the scale. The scalpel there and the stitching were easy to understand, given the instructions in the medical files. Below the counter, I saw the cupboards with medicine bottles. I almost ditched them until something caught my attention. It was a 0+ symbol. I grabbed the transparent plastic bottle of red pills and checked the label: 0+ blood.

"Omega, didn't you check these bottles?"

"Yeah," he replied, "but I'm sure they didn't have a name like George or Adam on them."

I looked at the files again, then at the bottles. I looked through them till I found the labels mentioned on the files. Soon I had 3 bottles of red pills (labels: 0-, 0+ and AB+ Blood), one of the yellow pills (label: Anesthetic) and 1 of blue pills (label: Vaccine).

My head seemed to press my brain in that very moment and I had to grab my temples for a bit. When I opened my eyes again, the scale was right in front of me. I shook my head and checked the scale intently, "Maybe…"

"You all right, dude?" asked Omega.

I didn't answer and instead, took out the exact doses of the pills and positioned them all in one side of the scale, then the little weight on the other side. The moment they stopped moving, a click sound was heard on the locker that seemed useless before and I opened it without a problem. Onega checked the insides after patting my back, all smiles.

Fuck, that hurt. I don't want that kind of physical praise. If it was a woman, though…

Then I looked at old bag Theta and felt a shiver down my spine.

Ok, better no praise at all from anyone! Honest!

"Good! Here are some identity cards. There is no picture but the cards are colored." He showed me three cards.

"Only three? I asked confused.

"It's ok, once we identify the first three, the other one is the one left."

Right… Dunno what's wrong with my head, seriously.

"Patrick is red, Adam is black and Gilbert is yellow. Then, George has to be the baldy!" he announced.

I wasted no time, grabbed the bald mannequin and positioned it face down on the first bed starting on the left. On the next bed, I positioned the red hair one. Then I took the scalpel and cut the left low backside of Baldy. It was made of leather so it was a bit hard. A bit apprehensive, I inserted my hand and grabbed a small object. Out with it, it looked like a plastic kidney toy, but it had some weight on it. I placed it into the right side of the Red's lower back after using the string to close the first opening and cutting the second mannequin. I closed the second opening as well.

I took a large breath. Damn, I felt like I was a real surgeon, but it wasn't the lives of the 4 mannequins what worried me at the time. I got the black haired mannequin and I positioned it next to Red in the next bed, facing up. Following that, I used the scalpel on his belly, cutting the leather on his left side and checking the inside with my hand and took a cucumber shaped toy that felt like lead and left it on the counter. Then I closed the opening before looking at the blonde mannequin. I lifted it. It was just putting him on the bed and it would be over… Just like that?

I looked at the files again. There was no surgery. He arrived and was only administered a vaccine due to a virus or whatever.

I frowned. That seemed too easy. Besides, there were two beds left.

"Why are there two beds?" I asked aloud.

Theta and Lambda weren't looking at me. Omega just shrugged, "Does it matter?"

"As far as we've seen this far, nothing is left to chance in here. If there is one bed more than what is needed, then it might mean something!"

"We only have 10 minutes left Sigma! Just place it in whatever bed and finish it!"

I almost pouted, "But if I chose the wrong bed… wait… the wrong bed… Oh… Those bastards…" I understood now.

I checked the files: patient Gilbert arrived, highly contagious…

I grinned and put the last mannequin in the last bed, avoiding the one next to Black.

We then heard an electronic voice.

Apollo's room unlocked!

* * *

"Yes!" I threw my arms up in a victory, while I dodged the 'friendly' praise pat in the back that was coming my way.

"How did you know it was the other bed?" he asked all smiles.

"If the patient was contagious, I wouldn't put it in a bed next to the others," I explained.

"Good one!"

"Now let's get out of here!" I said. I wasn't even going to wait for them. I just wanted to get out. But suddenly, I heard it again.

 ** _"Go Sigma! Stop that Lambdabastard!"_**

"Huh?"

I turned to look at Omega, but he wasn't looking at me. Then he did and raised a brow, "What?"

"What did you just said?" I asked him.

He raised a brow, "I haven't said a word."

"But you've told me to stop… Lambda…" then I looked around.

Lambda was gone.

"Fuck! I was so glad to finish the puzzle room I didn't realize!" I exclaimed.

I started running, but Omega grabbed my arm, "What's going on, man?"

"Let go of me, we must stop Lambda!" I tried to get away but he wasn't letting me go.

"Why? What is he going to do?" Theta asked, "I noticed him going back, but I don't understand."

"That's because he-"

I blinked. Why was it again? I have no idea why, I just knew Lambda couldn't go on his own. If he did, something bad was going to happen, but what?

Ugh, my head… is going to split open!

Many different voices echoed in my head.

 _ **"Mu… you… killed Delta."**_

 _ **"We only had time to tell him hi before he excused to get something he had forgotten in the Garden."**  
_

 _ **"The air system is in the garden, not in the storeroom as she thought."**  
_

 _ **"But I was too late… They probably mutated the virus already"**  
_

 _ **"A way to turn Celerity into the most dreadful bioweapon the world had ever seen. Initially, it transferred itself by air, so the moment it turned into a weapon, it would infect anyone. Everyone."**  
_

 _ **"There is a group of people, who provided most of the funds of the project. I doubt you've heard of them. They are called… Free the Soul. I believe they hacked into my research data diary and accessed the last entry, where I posted my latest discovery about Celerity and how it can be turned into a mass destruction weapon. Now they know how to mutate the virus into that."**  
_  
I felt as if I was being strangled and took several deep breaths. Omega and Theta looked at me almost scared. It seemed that all that I had somehow remembered, I had spoken it out loud at them.

Remembered… funny way to say so. How can I remember something that had never happened?

"Lambda is the one releasing the virus? SON OF A BITCH!" Omega suddenly snapped and rushed to the entrance of the room towards the garden.

I just looked at him leave, stunned. He knew something as well! Was everyone here involved?

That was answered by the only remaining person in the room apart from me, "I see… Free the soul. Then, Brother and the Myrmidons are behind this, as we suspected…" Theta said.

I looked at her and then I saw her face distorting by surprise "No!"

She ran towards the exit, way faster than what I would have given credit to her.

I stayed there for a moment. What should I do? Omega shouldn't have a problem with Lambda, he was twice his weight.

And Theta's expression… I had to make sure.

I decided to get out and see for myself.

* * *

The scene outside the door was more chaotic than I had expected.

Iota was on the floor. His helmet was off. As I suspected he was a young man, probably around my age. But he had an open wound on the side of his head bleeding. He wasn't unconscious, though, but it seemed the blow had left him disoriented for a while. His helmet was broken next to him and what had wounded him was a toolbox in the hands of a suit-dressed man.

Beta.

A shiver run down my spine as I looked at him. My blood froze as I saw his twisted smile for the first time.

Next to them, Phi was being pinned to the ground by Mu, who was pressing a screwdriver on her neck.

And close to me was the old lady, looking furious. If she could really see the scene well, I mean.

"Oh, Sigma-san. Good that you decided to join us," Mu greeted me.

Then, she looked at her brother- Wait. Her… brother…

Oh… I'm such an idiot.

I pointed at him, "You're him, their leader. The bastard behind all this. Zero! Or should I call you, Brother?"

He seemed surprised by my statement. Yeah, you try and deny it. After all this, you bald bastard.

"Odd that you had that information. Oh well, I guess you're right and wrong." he said and laughed loudly. "Mu, stun her," he ordered the crazy looking kid.

"Well, he got part of it right, huh?" Mu smirked, "I have no idea how do you know so much. But that won't matter anymore. Now you should worry about her," she nodded towards Phi, then pressed a specific point behind her neck and Phi screamed.

"Bitch!"

I gave a step at her but, Mu threatened Phi's neck again with the screwdriver, "All I did was just hitting a nerve to paralyze her, but I can do something more permanent," she stated coldly.

"The old bag next, Mu," ordered Beta.

"Come here granny. Or the girl gets a forced tracheotomy!" Mu threatened Theta.

I couldn't move. I had no idea how to solve this mess. Theta walked slowly, holding onto her cane.

Then a lot of things happened at the same time. Iota had recovered enough to hold one of Beta's ankles and throw him to the ground, but the most surprising thing was when Theta gave a quick and gracious spinning kick at Mu, sending her flying.

How could an old half blind woman do something like that? It was impossible!

I had no time to question her as she followed after Beta who was getting up. The fight was quick and after hearing a cracking sound when a kick landed on Beta's right side, Beta was on the floor again, holding onto his side.

Holy shit, had Theta just broken Beta's ribs from a kick?

"Who the hell are you?" I managed to tell her.

She didn't answer, but Phi started talking instead, "Isn't it obvious she was faking being old? On top of that. Are you going to help me or what?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry"

I went to her and checked her neck. There was something weird there. It was like a muscle next to her spine, in the base of the neck, had swollen to the size of a ping-pong ball.

"I have no idea how to help you…" I admitted.

"Please, allow me," Theta said, kneeling next to us. She touched the ball on Phi and started pressing on it from different angles until it deflated, "Her nerves were pinned, but she'll get better in a moment."

"For the time being, we can tie these two" announced Iota, who I had missed for a bit, getting out of a room I haven't noticed before. He had some cables which were used to tie Beta and Mu's arms and legs. Mu was unconscious, but Beta wasn't. He glared at us.

"Now we can get some answers at last!" I glared back at him.

"Not really necessary. It's clear now, except for one thing. Who Is Zero." Theta stated.

Iota and I looked at her confused, "What do you mean? Isn't it obvious these bastards orchestrated everything?"

"They indeed wanted to create and spread the virus from here," admitted Theta.

Phi poked my arm "I'm not sure I'm following, but they didn't need to create the nonary game to get the virus. They could have done it at any time if they were behind all this," she added.

"Then none of the three is Zero?" I asked, surprised.

"Of course not, are you an idiot?'" Omega said, coming into the room, dragging an unconscious Lambda with him. After letting him fall next to the other two, Iota proceeded to tie him as well. He showed us a little white ball.

It wasn't actually a ball. Looking at it closely, it was a tooth, a plastic fake tooth.

"I can guess this thing I took from the bastard was the means to mutate Celery and turn it into the deadly virus we feared," Omega nodded at it.

"Celery… It's the name of the virus Delta said!" I exclaimed.

"When did Delta say it?" Phi asked.

"Well… that is-"

"Then she must be Zero!" concluded Iota in a rush.

I shook my head, trying to get a grasp of the truth. But I was still unable to discern it, "Impossible. Delta is…" I couldn't say it aloud. I looked at Beta instead. He was smirking.

"That bitch had been useful in creating the means for our plans, but she wanted to ruin it and she knew too much. It was an easy choice," he admitted.

"You bastard!" Iota kicked him.

"That's enough!" Phi stopped him. She was still in control on herself, as usual, "Still if she's not Zero, then…"

We looked at Theta. She probably noticed it due to our silence. She smiled, "Yeah, that seems easy to conclude, especially since I lied to all of you from the beginning. But it was for a different reason. I'm not Zero."

"Then-" I was going to ask, but she wasn't finished.

"I finally recognized your voice. You did a good job modifying it, Aoi. You changed your appearance a lot as well, although since I couldn't even see it from the beginning, it didn't matter to me."

Theta was speaking, but the voice had changed… to one belonging to a man!

To our surprise, Omega replied, laughing, "Look who's talking! And Akane told me not to register any of you more than necessary. She said the risk was necessary for the plan to succeed, but it seems it went well as he was able to do the jumps," Omega was looking at me, smiling.

"What the hell are you talking-"

But Iota interrupted me, staring at Omega, "Santa? But you look so changed. No, wait, you mean you and Akane are behind this? Again? Where is she?"

"Alice's agency was looking for us and, at least, one of us needed to go out and have things done. I had a whole year and a lot of money to get as different as I could from the appearance I had," Omega explained him.

I didn't understand anything. Was Omega Zero? Who was Akane? And Alice? Phi next to me looked confused as well. But she was staring at me, frowning, "You knew something, right? Was I the only one who didn't? Or maybe… I'm not sure I think there is stuff I should know. I can feel it but-"

Omega explained, "It seems your ability to jump isn't as developed as his. Besides, his memory was essential for the plan."

Ability? Plan? I was going to ask, but the pain in my head started once again.

 ** _"For the plan to succeed, we need you and Phi to awaken your power to jump from different timelines and remember as much as you can, in order to follow the right path, stop the virus and save our doomed future."_**

I snapped out of it, shaking my head, "I remember now… an old woman… But it never happened!" I exclaimed

"And now it won't anymore. Thanks to you two," said another voice behind us.

We all turned around at the now opened Poseidon door. A brown haired young woman around my age entered the hall, next to a pink haired girl and an exotic looking woman with revealing clothes.

"Kanny!" Iota exclaimed, approaching her.

"At last, Jumpy. You found me," she smiled sweetly.

"Jumpei? What are you-"

But the surprised pink haired girl was immediately interrupted by Theta, "Clover? Is that really you?"

"Light? Oh, I was so worried!" She ran and hugged her/him, then they separated for a moment, "What are you wearing? You look like a clown!"

"Clover…" Iota or Jumpei as they were calling him looked a bit astonished to the pair, "And that's Snake? No way!"

Theta smiled apologetically, "Sorry, Jumpei. But this was a covert operation. I couldn't reveal myself to anyone. It wasn't easy to guess your voice with that helmet on. And only realized after you had taken it off."

Theta, or Light, as he was being called by… Clover, was it? Anyway, he pulled his hair to reveal it was a wig and he also took off some plastic features from his face. He was a man a bit older than me and his eyes were closed.

"I couldn't take it out until that bastard hit me before," Jumpei explained, pointing at Beta.

Oh, so it wasn't on purpose he was hiding his face.

"I can't believe you ended up using that, Light. I had it prepared as some sort of joke, you know?" the exotic woman looked a bit startled.

Theta/Snake/Light seemed to recognize the voice, "Oh! Alice too. What happened? You two disappeared 2 days before the operation was going to start! Did the Myrmidons kidnap you?"

Alice looked at Akane, "Actually, it was Akane who did. Although her explanation still gives me a headache when I try to grasp it."

Like the headache that I was having, oh god!

A lot of images flooded my mind. **Different stories, in a different place, with different people; well, not all different. Alice, Clover, even Lambda were there!**  
I couldn't help throwing up when it finished. I managed to regain my breath and stood up, looking at Akane. She was looking back at me as if she knew what had just happened.

"All of it… is real?" I managed to ask her.

She nodded, "Those facts won't change. In their respective timelines, they will happen. But at last, a timeline with the ending we were looking for has happened. From now on, the alternative timelines will have a fair chance to get good endings as well," she then turned to look serious at Beta. He glared back at her in a way, that if he could kill her with it, she would be lying dead in the floor, "You've lost, Brother," she stated.

"That guy is the leader of Free the soul?" Alice asked, suddenly enraged.

Then from the memories I had found, another face grabbed my attention, **on the floor and unconscious**.

"That is… Left. Right? Dio?" I was getting confused again.

"Most likely a clone. Dio will probably be born after this one died here in this mission," Akane explained. She surely had done her homework regarding the future.

I was managing to understand more and more of the information I gathered from other timelines and there was something that intrigued me more that anything.

"I don't recall anything I did-will do, as an older me, Dr. Klim. Shouldn't his consciousness be here instead of my younger mind? Or is it that he forgot all his memories after he went to the moon the first time?"

Akane smiled, "Again, who's the person behind the armor? It should be the old you in that body. But think about it. This timeline is different from any others, the disaster was averted. The future will be different and we won't need to recreate it as in the other timeline where the virus got out. Therefore, no AB project will be needed, nor anyone to come back in time. Your actions here changed the mind inside the body."

That made little sense, "Then, how's that I remember those things that now will never happen in the AB project?"

"In the future possible timeline, your old self made a jump back in time to your body but the travel damaged his memory to the point of not knowing after his abduction. What do we get from that? A Sigma with the same knowledge as the young one's mind. What does that make him? A normal man or a man whose mind has come from the future but forgotten about such future? Weren't you in a state where you could be both? In that moment, you became a Schrodinger's cat. The ability to travel to other timelines was awoken by that fact in your young mind, or maybe it was just there from your old mind? Could well be both. Only the ending of your quest will give the answer. Will creating a similar future again be needed and thus, finding an old man with memory loss in a young body? Or would the future be a new and bright one and the mind in that young one will be his own, but with an awakened power, thus being able to access information from other timelines in other times and spaces?" she smiled as she finished.

Ok, now my head is hurting for real and I doubt the 'jumps' have anything to do this time. I took a deep breath, "That doesn't answer my question, how do I have my ability awakened if the future me never did the jump nor I underwent the AB project process?"

"That was the tricky thing in this plan," She smiled as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, "We can't destroy the cause and effect law, but there could be a little loophole in it."

We all were silent at that point. She went on, "If old Sigma came back and forgot, his ability to enter the 4th dimension remained. Or, since he never needed to go back in time in this timeline, he awoke this ability in you while trying to go back in time from another timeline. He was inside with his powers or he awoke your powers while trying to get inside and got rejected afterward? I'm an esper myself and my powers awoke by chance at one point in my life. What were the chances of that happening earlier? Afterwards? Could be another me from another timeline that already had powers that by trying to get in contact with me, awoke mines? We'll never know. In any case, your mind and consciousness can dive in the 4th dimension. That means it can access the information of other timelines, like me. Your younger mind of 22 just received that information as your powers awoke. However, you were needed to make several jumps in order to follow he correct path and recall the information gained in each jump in order to do things right. Trial and error."

That clarified some stuff, but… "I'm still confused about one thing. You say in this timeline, the future me won't need to travel back. So in this timeline…"

"You won't need to create the project, nor create a clone, nor travel to the moon. And of course, neither will Alice, Phi or Clover. Alice and Clover were unfrozen about 25 minutes ago when Aoi gave me the signal and canceled the nonary game," she said as she looked at the beefy Aoi.

He shrugged, "We already had the info we needed to stop the virus, so there was no need to continue."

I looked at my wristbands. They were switched off.

Oh! That didn't explain… "Wait a second! If the old me didn't take my body to the mars simulation test facility, then how did I get here in the first place?"

Akane nodded, "That's an excellent question. Aoi?"

Aoi looked at me, "Akane knew what would happen and what could happen in her insights of other timelines. At least apart from what happened inside the test facility

Akane continued on behalf of Aoi, "I knew the virus would be released in this place but we didn't know how or who was responsible. Or where did it come from. There is a timeline where we just blow the entire complex and the virus got released somewhere else days afterward. It didn't work. We never knew how was it created. They only needed a sample of Celerity, which accelerates the speed of thought to double to simulate mars gravity, making things to seem slower. Dr. Mamba developed the drug and it was to be tested here for the first time. She came here after she had destroyed what she believed was all the Celerity created. But Free the Soul had another sample. They were prepared to mutate a common flu virus mixed with Celerity and create the opposite effect and doubling it to create a deadly plague."

"Akane saw that the only way to stop it all was inside the complex. I didn't expect to see that Snake had infiltrated, though," Aoi added.

Light smirked, "You were too gentleman-wise to check a woman's body that thoroughly. In any case, should the plan orchestrated by Alice failed, as it did when they disappeared, we had to proceed with a backup plan."

"And since we have now the 2 bastards in charge, we can stop an alternate release of the virus," stated Alice.

I started rambling, trying to figure out the last pieces of this mess, "I get why I was here and how, but what about Phi? She passed almost through the same as me in the future, yet she didn't recall much."

"We needed her in order to resonate with you and to make you react when meeting her. Your first meeting with her in here was the starting reaction point. The moment where you started to receive information from other timelines, am I wrong?"

"Yeah, you called me by my name," Phi recalled, "In any case, my memory isn't as good as yours it seems," She told me, a bit annoyed at her role, "And the rest?" She asked Aoi.

"Anyone found trying to enter the facility on that day was gassed and abducted to play the game. Those three were here in order to release the virus for sure. Although I never expected to find the big boss," Aoi looked at Beta with disgust.

"The Dr., I mean Delta, came to retrieve the original virus. It didn't work too well…" I commented. She had been the only certain death, in all timelines. Talk about a doomed destiny.

Jumpei seemed a bit annoyed, like Phi, "I was an easy one. I was enticed with, you want to see Akane, go and participate in the mars simulation test."

I put my hand on his shoulder, recalling what could have happened in the future, in the Moon, "Heh, you would have done the same again in the future, if the plan hadn't worked."

He looked at me, dead serious, "I would have done it again and again if the chance existed to find her. To find you," he finished, looking at Akane.

She looked down, "I… Everything I did was because… as I foresaw the disaster to come, I felt the responsibility to avoid it. Billions were at stake. How could I put my happiness before that? I understood well that sacrifices had to be done…"

I looked at her surprised. This Akane was different from the old twisted woman with no regrets from the future. Whatever that happened that would detach her from her humanity, it had nothing to do with this girl.

"But you won't need it anymore," stated Jumpei, "Now your happiness can be first. And mine too."

"Is that ok…?" she looked sad.

"Ah! Shut up already! Do you think I've been traveling this long just to scold you?" he hugged her.

She was about to cry, "I-"

"Look, just promise me never to escape me again." he asked her

She giggled, "Don't worry. From now on, there will be Zero escape."

END (Line E)

* * *

 _Author's note: Finally, we got the **True end**. I'm really glad to have finished posting it before the real third game comes out at the end of the month. I hope you enjoyed the ride and if you believe there are poor explanations at the end or plotholes and stuff... then there probably are there. Sorry! _ ^_^U

Also, I'll probably need to move this story to the real third game section instead of the VLR one.

And finally a little bit of trivia. I created the character Delta without really knowing about the character Diana in the third game (I started this story last year), had I known, I would have made her red haired. The D usage it's because she's a Doctor. It is a coincidence that the character that should be in her place would have had here the same codename. Also, why I used Omega, O, for Santa being his real name Aoi... it's really silly but he once said he hated love among other things and Love in japanese is "Ai", I think. Take the "Love" from his name and what's left?


End file.
